


A Hero's Loss

by gnomesagetion



Series: Slingshot [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: AU where Civil War kinda never happened but Tony still took Peter as a protegee, Black Widow - Freeform, Cameos from a lot of the other avengers, F/M, Gen, Like Ant Man, Minor Character Death, the wasp - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-07-02 18:12:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 49,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15801918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gnomesagetion/pseuds/gnomesagetion
Summary: Abigail Jackson handles going to school, learning how to survive in the wild, fighting villians and family and friends on most days. Ocassionally she goes overseas as the teen hero Slingshot to handle problems that the Avengers need to handle. One particular problem lands Naomi and her superhero friends in deep water that leads them to uncover a plan that goes all the way the New York Mayor's office. Will following the leads cause Naomi and the rest of her team to lose some of the things they hold dear? or will it lead them to the truth?





	1. Chapter 1

I was in the middle of a maths test. It was admittedly the hardest maths test I ever had done. And while I would give anything not to be in my maths classroom writing the answer to (2x+3) (x+4) (x-5) down, I didn’t want to leave. I’d missed enough classes as it was, and I didn’t want to delay the inevitable algebra test that by the looks of things, everyone was struggling with. Normally my mind would be so focused on even getting one full question done that leaving the test part way through it was never be on it. But my hidden implant was vibrating. It was getting increasingly annoying. Can you even imagine having a solution to a problem but if you do it your whole life would be ruined? Looking at the classroom clock, I saw that I still had 40 minutes of class left. Maybe taking a quick break to regather my thoughts would be a good thing. I put up her hand to get her teacher’s attention.  
“Yes Abigail?” Mr Deo, my math teacher, said  
“Can I please go to the bathroom Mr Deo?”  
“Just hurry back,”

Securely hidden in a toilet cubicle, I touched my implant. The vibrating stopped, making it the only problem I had been able to solve at all in the last twenty minutes. The implant turned into glasses with a hub screen. I could only assume that the hub screen was similar to what Tony Stark saw inside his helmet. The hub screen showed I had an incoming call from Hawkeye. Of course, my mentor was the source of the only problem I could fix. So, I answered it, if only to feel like I had accomplished something.  
“About time kid, I’ve been calling you for the last five minutes,” Hawkeye said  
“I know that – I was preoccupied with something,”  
“Like what?”  
“What day is it Barton?”  
“Friday,”  
“And what usually happens for teenagers on Mondays through to Fridays?”  
“You were in class. Sorry,”  
“No problem. Algebra test is kinda doing my head in, so I needed a break anyway”  
“How much longer?”  
“40 minutes – you need my help?”  
“I should be able to hold off until you finish your test,”  
“Okay. You wouldn’t be able to tell me what the fully expanded and simplified version of (2x+3) times (x+4) times (x-5) is?”  
“Get back to your test Abs. You’ll do fine,” Hawkeye cut the connection and I touched my implant again, making her glasses retract back into it.

Using the mass of students at Midtown High changing classes, I snuck out of the school grounds and changed from her outfit for the day into her uniform. Now dressed as the superhero protegee Slingshot, I touched my implant for my glasses so that I could conceal my identity a little bit. I called Hawkeye as I hid my school bag behind a dumpster.  
“Where do you need me?” I asked when Hawkeye answered.  
“1st avenue,” I shot a grappling arrow from her crossbow at the top of the one of the buildings in the alleyway.  
“Can someone come to pick me up? It’s gonna take me a while on foot,” I tied the end of the grappling arrow to my belt before pull on the arrow to make sure it was secure.  
“Iron Man started heading for your location when you called me,”  
“Thanks, I can hear his repulses,” I used the controls in my right glove to activate the grappling arrow’s automatic winch system.  
“Hey Slingshot,” Iron Man interrupted the call “I’m about 30 seconds from your location,”  
“I’ll meet you on the roof,” I told Iron Man as I pulled myself over the top of the roof. Sure enough, Iron Man was touching down.  
“You my ride?” I asked.  
“More like the delivery boy for your ride,” Iron Man said as his mask retracted into the rest of his helmet. I frowned in confusion. Then Tony Stark retracted his suit and took out what looked like a miniature skateboard without any wheels  
“I noticed that it makes the team less efficient if one of its members has to leave to pick up another. So, I made you a hoverboard,”  
“You do realise that I’m 5 foot, 7, right? That miniature is not going to hold me,” I pointed out.  
“Just hold a second,” Tony smirked as the hoverboard grew in size “You can control the hoverboard through your glove controls if you need to and your hub screen has voice activation for the hoverboard should you need to use it in a hurry,” The application for the hoverboard turned up on the right corner of my hub screen as my glasses recalibrated with the new software. Using the controls in my right glove, I turned the hoverboard on, making it hover only inches off the ground. I cautiously stepped on it. Once one foot was place on it, the hoverboard created a foot hold, locking it in place. When my other foot came down on the surface the same thing happened.  
“You know how to skateboard right?” Tony asked, his suit reforming.  
“I know the principal of it,” I admitted.  
“Well you’ll have to learn on the way – we’re needed,”  
“Don’t worry I’m a quick learner,” I said willing my hoverboard to rise further of the ground.

Iron Man stayed with me as we travelled to 1st Avenue. As I had told Iron Man, I was indeed a fast learner which meant we were quicker and arrived at the battle site earlier than we expected to. I lowered my hoverboard to the ground before using my controls to release my feet. I quickly hopped off the hoverboard and made it shrink. Some rubble from one of the buildings fell, causing me to roll out of the way while grabbing my hoverboard. My roll made me end up next to my mentor, Hawkeye.  
“I was beginning to wonder if you’d gotten stuck in traffic,” Hawkeye greeted as he fired another arrow. I watched as the arrow meet its target – a mecha controlled by a man – and explode.  
“Who’s the guy?” I asked, putting my miniature hoverboard in one of my belt pockets before taking one of my slingshot shots from the dispenser on my belt. I loaded it into my slingshot and fired it in the direction of the metal husk. The shot made contact and covered the impact zone in ice.  
“No idea,” Black Widow said before moving on to fight from a different angle. Iron Man had also left, joining Thor in the air. I reloaded as she watched the ice from her previous shot shatter. As I did so, I observed the multitude of heroes working together on this mission. I was pretty sure I glimpsed the other teenaged heroes helping out the adult heroes.  
“Ice is not working Slingshot. So far, the only thing that has any affect is the frequency arrows,” Hawkeye said, “The explosions are good distractions though,”  
“Have you tried the slime arrows?” I asked, firing my second shot.  
“No,” Hawkeye said, dodging a laser blast from the mecha. My shot landed at the feet of the mecha and it splattered green coloured slime everywhere. The man controlling the mecha tried to move the mecha’s feet but was unable to due to the slime connecting the mecha to the asphalt of the road. I had no time to celebrate as the mecha’s laser cannon was turned on her.  
“Hawkeye, do you think you could use your slime arrows to trap the mecha’s arms?” I asked over comms.  
“Sounds good – you should use an emp bolt to disable the mecha once I’ve got it slimed,” Hawkeye agreed.  
“Gotcha,” I slid my slingshot back into its loop on my belt before retrieving my crossbow from my belt. I then touched the panel on my left thigh to retrieve my crossbow bolts. When the panel came out far enough to show my arsenal, I picked up one of my three emp bolts and loaded it. Touching the panel again caused it to return into my suit. As Hawkeye and the other Avengers worked on sliming and distracting the mecha, I was constantly on the move, avoiding laser blasts and falling rumble while re-aiming my crossbow.  
“Now Slingshot!” Hawkeye’s voice came through the comes. In a split second, I aimed and shot the bolt. The bolt hit the mecha’s chest and the emp blast came out, shutting down the mecha. Due to the small blast radius, none of the hero’s own technology was affected. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. Everyone was safe again. Hawkeye made his way through the other heroes.  
“Good job,” He told me. I smiled.  
“Thanks,”  
“How did your math test go? Did you get the answer for the one you asked me about?”  
“I don’t even want to talk about it – I gave up in frustration. How they expect us to do this as an exam is beyond me,” I answered, “What are you guys going to do about the dude in the mecha?”  
“We’ll take him in for questioning – he’s not the first person to arrive with new tech,”  
“Okay – anything I can do to help?”  
“Not at the moment,”  
“Okay then. We still on for the weekend?”  
“At this moment yes,” Hawkeye smiled “Now get back to school,” I took out my new hoverboard and enlarged it. I hopped on it and left 1st avenue in the direction of Midtown High.

I had a last period study hall. The teacher, the unlovable Mrs McFarlane, ruled the room with a deadly silence. I sat at one of the solo desks, working on my history report. Every now and again I would look around the room. In the back corner was a few of the academic decathlon team members Ned and Peter. Ned looked eager to talk to Peter about something, but Peter was trying to keep to Mrs McFarlane’s rules. In the other back corner was one of the new girls in my year. Anastassia? Anastasia? Unsure exactly what her name is since I’ve never actually meet her, and she isn’t in any classes. I think. Further in front was the surprisingly never on time military brat, Darcey Stephens and some of her friends. I had a few classes with Darcey – she seemed interesting from what I overheard. Having surveyed enough of the room, I checked the time on my laptop screen. There was still ten minutes left. I sighed and continued writing about the battle of Passchendaele.

When the bell signalling the end of the day rang, I was one of the first people out of the study class. I couldn’t help but be excited. While Slingshot and Hawkeye were mentor and student, so were the people behind the masks. Clint Barton was once a SHIELD agent who had been my instructor at the archery range. I had been an assignment after I, as a 12-year-old, shot and killed 3 aliens with a slingshot. That put me on SHIELD’s radar and after 2 years of rigorous training with slingshots, crossbows, bows and throwing daggers, I was almost as deadly with my accuracy as Hawkeye. Hawkeye had been my hero after the Battle of New York so when Clint had revealed who he was and offered me a position within SHIELD’s agent training program I jumped at the chance. I’d managed to gain level 3 clearance when SHIELD was dismantled. It was Clint who explained what had happened. Although SHIELD had been dismantled, Clint decided to continue training me. His latest unit – wilderness survival. Over a period of two months, I’d spent a few of my weekends at Clint’s house in the countryside with his family learning the skills and even camping out with his two oldest in their backyard. This weekend was the weekend that Clint and I were putting my skills to the test by going on a trek in the Colorado Rockies. Other than the occasional trip to upstate New York to the Avengers’ base, I rarely left New York City. I also had only been on a total of three planes in my entire life. I was excited. I managed to beat the after-school weekend rush to the front gate, allowing me to have my escape unhindered. I saw Clint’s old pick-up truck parked across the street. Making sure that traffic was going to allow me through, I crossed the street and almost threw my backpack in the back.  
“I’m so ready for the weekend,” I told Clint, gently putting my backpack in the back.  
“Unfortunately, we’re going to have to put it on hold for now – there’s a new plan,” I sighed a Clint’s news.  
“What are we going do instead?”  
“I’ll tell you on the way upstate,” Clint smiled and opened up his car door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and some kudos. I appreciate any and all feedback. :)


	2. Chapter 2

Walking through Avengers HQ is a surreal experience even when you’ve walked its halls before. On the way up to it, Hawkeye had told me about what Black Widow had learnt from the man in the mecha. He’d gotten the mecha from a supplier in Great Britain. A complete back ground check and deep dive on the supplier known as John Galvon found that he had connections to HYDRA. As to what connections, no one could be sure. Which is why Tony had called a mission. Entering a conference room, I saw Spider Man, Fe, Black Widow, Vision and Scarlett Witch sitting around the conference table while Tony was looking at the big screen. Missing from the group were the two new protégés of Vision and Scarlett Witch and Black Widow’s own pupil.  
“So nice of you to join us Slingshot, Hawkeye,” Tony greeted.  
“Traffic was killer okay. Some of us don’t have private jets we can use,” Hawkeye said in reply.  
“Can we just get on with the brief?” Black Widow asked. Tony nodded.  
“Meet John Galvon – small time arms dealer and CEO of a small weapons company in London,” With a flick of Tony’s hand Galvon’s picture appeared on the big screen “We know that Galvon was the one who supplied our Mecha Man with the Mecha and we know he has HYDRA connections. Our mission is to find out what his connections are exactly. To do that we need to go undercover at a charity gala. I already have an invite, but I need back up on the inside as well as the outside to pull this off. Which is why I’ve created four fake identities with the help of Black Widow. Hawkeye and Slingshot will be Clarissa and Dante Grey. Dante is the owner of a multibillion hunting supplies business. Clarissa is his daughter and the heir to the business. Spider Man and Fe will be the other two going in. Mark and Phoebe Harrison are a brother and sister duo who between them have amassed $1 billion. They too have business that sells things. It’s all on your dossiers,” Black Widow handed out four files to Spider Man, Fe, Hawkeye and myself. I didn’t bother opening it to read it as Black Widow continued the briefing.  
“Tony is going to come in through the front door and give the paparazzi all the front-page gossip they want while everyone else is entering through the back door. Hawkeye and Slingshot will enter first and head up to the second floor of the gala building. This gives Tony, Spider Man and Fe cover from the high ground. Tony will enter after Hawkeye and Slingshot which will also give Spider Man and Fe cover to enter. Being teenagers with $1 billion will draw attention to you two so try not to make any scenes,”  
“So, we have our mission, any questions?” Tony asked  
“What are we going to wear?” I asked, “Some of us aren’t… well… you,”  
“Already sorted – Black Widow helped with that one. Your dress, as well as Fe’s, will be in your rooms,”  
“Why dresses?” Fe asked “Wouldn’t it make more sense if we wore suits? After all we would be able to hide our work suits in case we got in trouble,”  
“As much as that would make more sense and be safer for the two of you, going undercover often means that you are put in situations that make you uncomfortable because you need to blend it,” Black Widow said “While women in suits are becoming more popular, these sorts of events often come with a strict dress code. This gala is no exception,”  
“We’ll make do. Don’t tell me there’s going to be extra tight security so no weapons,” I said.  
“There’s security so I don’t advise any obvious weapons,” Tony said “Good we’re done. Go get ready,”

Despite the fact that I wasn’t actually an Avenger and rarely visited the base, I still had a room in the dormitory wing of Avengers HQ. As Tony had said, a dress and a pair of shoes were waiting for me. The dress was navy blue and had silver beads creating a x shaped belt design on the front while similar beads adorned the straps of the sleeveless gown. The heels were wide fit and had a small heel. I quickly changed from my superhero suit into the dress and heels. I was about to head out the door when I remembered something I had left in my room the last time I had been at Avengers HQ – a necklace with large round marbles had sat on the desk of drawers for a few months. I put it on and grabbed one of a few slingshots I kept in the room. Remembering that I didn’t have any pockets, I rummaged through the drawers to find the small holster I had gotten made especially for my slingshots. I put the holster around my leg before sliding the slingshot into place. It was weird having the extra weight around my leg, but it was possibly the only way for me to get a weapon into the gala. No one would want to check under my dress. Then I remembered my new hoverboard. I took it out of my school bag. Making sure that I had everything else, I took my blazer off the bed and put it on, so I could keep warm during the flight. Hawkeye was waiting for me outside my room when I left it. He was wearing a black suit, dress shoes and a dark purple over coat. His tie and pocket square were the same shade of navy blue as my dress.  
“You look wonderful Abs,” Hawkeye said.  
“Thanks Clint. You dress up nicely as well,”  
“I have something else for you. Tony designed a pair of earrings for all the ladies if they were needed for a mission like this. They act as both an accessory and a com,” Hawkeye pulled out a small box from one of his dress coat pockets. He gave it to me and I quickly opened it. The earrings were the most beautiful I had ever seen. The stud part of the earrings were a little bow and arrow. Hanging off the ends of the bow and the fletching of the arrow were three small chains that held three small arrows; the chain coming off the fletching being the smallest.  
“They’re beautiful,” I said, “I’ll put them on in the jet,” I closed the box as Hawkeye nodded.  
“We should get going,” He said, “We don’t want to keep the pilot waiting,”

Hawkeye and I had been at the gala for 15 minutes when Iron Man came through the front door. Hawkeye was sipping at a small glass of champagne with his back to the back door. I had my own glass, but I only pretended to sip it every now and again. My back was to the front door so that I was the first person with eyes on Spider Man and Fe when they arrived. When we had arrived, we had taken a small two-person table near the balcony that overlooked the main floor of the gala. It was one of the most perfect spots observing.  
“Iron Man has entered, waiting on Spider Man’s and Fe’s appearance,” Hawkeye said through his com.  
“We’ve arrived,” Fe’s voice replied back. I looked over to the back door to see two teenagers walk in surrounded by three bodyguards. The female teen was wearing sleeveless teal blue floor length dress while the male wore an unimpressive black suit.  
“I see you,” I informed Fe and Spider Man. I kept my eyes on the pair who continued to make their way to centre of the ground floor. Despite the far distance, I could have sworn I recognised both Spider Man’s and Fe’s civilian identities.  
“Are you okay?” Hawkeye asked, cutting through my train of thought “You look concerned,”  
“Not concern per se, just wondering where I’ve seen Fe and Spider Man before. Their civilian identities obviously,”  
“You don’t really need to be thinking about that right now. Save it for the flight home when we’re all sharing one jet,” Hawkeye said, “Right now we’ve got company,” Hawkeye tipped his glass towards the front door. I casually brought my glass of champagne to my lips and turned my head to look towards the front door. I watched as John Galvon walked in, flanked by two security guards.  
“Suspect has arrived,” Hawkeye informed the rest of the team.  
“We see him,” Spider Man’s voice came in reply.  
“I see him too,” Iron Man said.  
“Tony, stay focused. We want him alive, so we can question him further,” Black Widow reminded Tony of our mission.  
“We will, let me go talk to him first one former CEO of a former weapons company to a current CEO of a weapons company,” Tony said.  
“This oughta be good,” Hawkeye drunk the rest of his champagne.

It wasn’t long before Iron Man caused a scene. From the looks of what was going down, Galvon had seen right through Iron Man’s playboy persona for his true intentions. Guests ran in terror while some security guards stayed behind. I touched my implant to conceal my identity before taking off my necklace and laying it on the table. I bent down and retrieved my slingshot. Standing up, I took one of the stone marbles off the necklace and I loaded it into the slingshot. I aimed at Galvon’s bodyguard on the left and let my shot go. My shot made its mark and the bodyguard fell. The bodyguard on the right also fell. I looked over to Hawkeye. He’d drawn one of his crossbows.  
“Smart move, using your ammo as a necklace,” Hawkeye said, firing another arrow. I picked up a second stone and loaded it in.  
“Thanks. I got the idea from a book. Even with Tony’s degree in fashion and design, he couldn’t even add pockets to the dress,” I fired my shot. It hit Galvon in the side. He looked up and saw Hawkeye and me.  
“Oops,” I said, following Hawkeye out of sight from Galvon. We found our way to the hidden staircase and ran down it  
“He was bound to find us sooner or later,” Hawkeye told me “Besides this is why we have overwatch,” Hawkeye and I were exiting the staircase when Black Widow, Scarlett Witch and Vision appeared.  
“What happened to taking Galvon down quietly?” Black Widow asked, firing one of her stingers in time with an arrow from Hawkeye.  
“Tony happened,” Spider Man, Fe, Hawkeye and myself said.  
“Of course,” Black Widow said  
“Not my fault, he saw straight through me before I even got started,” Iron Man said, firing a repulsor beam.  
“Either way, we’ve got him,” Fe said  
“If he’d just stand still, I could just web him up. But he can’t seem to stay still,” Spider Man said, firing another round of webbing. Unlike me, Spider Man and Fe hadn’t donned their face marks. Being this close to them meant I got a closer look at their faces. I recognised them as Peter Parker and the new girl from my study hall earlier in my day. Not having time to think about that any more, I reloaded and fired my own shot.

Eventually, we got Galvon. After loading him up in the cargo hold on the jet, I managed to find Fe and Spider Man. They were sitting in one of the private rooms aboard the jet. I closed the door to the room behind me.  
“Okay how the how is Peter bloody Parker freaking Spider Man?” I say. Peter and Fe jumped at the sound of my voice. I touched my implant to deactivate my glasses.  
“Wait a minute…” Peter said, “You’re Abigail Jackson from my history class,”  
“What’s going on?” Fe asked, “How do you two know each other?”  
“Peter and I share a last period study hall on Fridays. In fact, so do we Fe or whatever your name is,”  
“You go to Midtown?” Fe asked, “How is that possible?”  
“Don’t ask me,” I said, shrugging “I’m still confused as to how Peter is Spider Man,”  
“You’re just as confusing Abigail,” Peter said.  
“Maybe we should start from the beginning,” Fe said, “My name is Stassia Smith and I’m the person behind Fe,” She held out her hand. I took it and shook it.  
“Slingshot, but my friends and family call me Abigail Jackson,”  
“Nice to meet you Abigail,”  
“You too Stassia. Did I say that right?” Stassia nodded.  
“This is so cool,” Peter said, “We could start our own small Avengers team,”  
“Yeah, nah, let’s not do that,” Fe said  
“I kinda have to agree with Fe… sorry Stassia, on this one,” I said, “When we go back to school on Monday, nothing has changed. You guys do your stuff with your own friends and I do my own stuff with mine. It would be a little weird if we started hanging out together,”  
“I guess you’re right,” Peter said, “But you guys are more than welcome to hang with Ned and I at any time,” There was a knock at the door.  
“Come in,” Peter said. Clint opened the door and came in.  
“Just letting you guys know that we’re about an hour out from landing. Natasha wants us all to talk about what’s going to happen next,” He told us, “Be there in five,” Clint left the room and closed the door behind him.  
“I don’t want to keep Natasha waiting, so I’m going,” I told Stassia and Peter. I left the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and some kudos. I appreciate any and all feedback. :)


	3. Chapter 3

My weekend was spent at Avengers HQ bounced between watching Natasha and Steve interrogate Galvon with Clint, tinkering with new crossbow bolts and slingshot shots and playing video games with Stassia and/or Peter in the common room. My parents thought that I was in the Rockies for the weekend, so I couldn’t really go home and turn up unexpectedly. I assume that’s why Stassia and Peter decided to stay; they knew I wasn’t going home until Sunday. In the parts of interrogation that I watched it seemed that Galvon wasn’t going to talk. It was almost unsettling to watch Galvon just sit there and smirk while Natasha and Steve tried every single trick in the book. By the time midday Sunday came around, Clint and I left the base and were at my place in time to have a dinner with my brother and parents. Monday morning came like cat running across the road. It was off to the bus stop to catch the bus, my school bag unzipped and slung over my shoulder. I’m pretty sure I had forgotten something, probably my notes for maths, and there was the possibility that some of my loose paper had escaped my bag. Once I got off the bus at school, I felt a lot more relaxed. I followed the rest of the students go through into school.

It was my lunch that I had forgotten to grab off the kitchen bench. Walking out of fourth period history with my friend Lara, I told her I’d meet her and the rest of our friends that I’d meet them at the usual spot on the quad as I had to go buy lunch. Lara didn’t mind and only told me to hurry up other wise I might spend my entire lunch time in line. Walking towards the cafeteria, I came across Stassia. She was sitting next to a bunch of lockers alone. I knew that along with Peter we’d all agreed that we wouldn’t really interact with each other at school. But she looked lonely.  
“Hey Stassia,” I said, stopping my her.  
“Oh hey,” She replied, “I thought that we weren’t going to you know, do this,”  
“Well you look alone – have you made any friends yet?”  
“Well besides Peter and you, I don’t actually know anyone here well enough to call my friend. I don’t even know you well enough,” I sighed.  
“Well consider me your friend. Come join me and my friends for lunch today. See how you like it and we’ll go from there,” I held out my hand to pull her up. Stassia grabbed it and together we got her off the ground.  
“But first I have to go buy lunch,” I told her “You don’t mind waiting in line with me, do you?”  
“No, I don’t mind,”

Because I had stopped to make friends with Stassia, the lunch lines were long. Waiting in line meant that Stassia and I could get to know each other better. I learnt that Stassia and I shared French, World History, Gym class, English and several study halls together. She learnt that I had a younger brother whom I hated and who hated me. Stassia didn’t have any siblings but felt that Peter was the closest she could come. Stassia took Computing and Engineering when I had Spanish and Classics. We both had maths at the same time but were put in different classes because mine was too full. Eventually I made it to the front of the line and brought a ham sandwich and a chocolate chip cookie. As we walked towards the spot I sat with my friends, I had a chance to warn her what my friends thought I had been doing all weekend.  
“Clint and I were meant to spend the weekend in the Rockies on a hike. I told my friends as such,” I explained “They might be a little surprised to learn what their friend really does,” Stassia laughed a little.  
“Do you and Clint often go on trips together?” Stassia asked. I nodded.  
“Clint has essentially become my second dad. My dad is usually never home when I am, and neither is my mum. They both work long hours. Clint kinda fills the parenting gap. Not that he needs to. He’d never replace my dad or my mum,”  
“It’s almost a similar story with me and Tony. But he’s more of the fun uncle than father figure to me,”  
“Cool,” Stassia and I reached a natural lull in our conversation as we approached my friends.  
“Took you long enough Abs,” Lara said, “Who’s the new girl?”  
“I’m Stassia Smith,” Stassia introduced herself.  
“The introvert has picked up a new stray. About time Jackson,” Harriet, one of my other friends, said.  
“How did you two meet?” My third friend Freya asked.  
“Her uncle knows my Uncle Clint from work. We went hiking with them over the weekend,”  
“I thought it was just going to be you and your uncle hiking,” Harriet said, confused  
“I was wrong,”  
“It was a last-minute thing,” Stassia said “My parents had to unexpectedly leave, and my uncle needed to get out of the city. Mr Barton didn’t mind us tagging along. I hope you don’t mind me tagging along for lunch,”  
“Oh, that’s no problem Stassia,” Freya said, “We could also do with another best friend,”

Stassia and I had French 5th period. We would have enjoyed the lesson (we were making crepes) but we were called out of class twenty minutes into it. Happy Hogan was waiting for us in the school reception.  
“Hey Happy!” Stassia said “Why are you picking us up early?”  
“A few of our college aged interns had to go home early. We need some people to continue their work. Parker’s meant to be with you two. Where is he?”  
“I don’t know,” Stassia shrugged.  
“Stassia and I had French last. Don’t know what Peter had,”  
“Sorry it took so long Happy – had to make sure Ned didn’t blow up anything,” Peter said, appearing in the other reception doorway.  
“Come on then,” Happy sighed “The car’s out front,”

Happy drove us to out to one of the many private airstrips that Tony Stark had brought in case of an Avengers’ emergency. He told us to find one of the quinjets in hanger 6. The Avengers were waiting for us. I told Peter and Stassia to go on ahead of me – this was a mission for Slingshot, not Abigail. After a quick bathroom break to change, I found hanger 6 and the quinjet. Inside the quinjet was Spider Man, Fe, Black Widow, Gecko and Hawkeye.  
“Glad you could join us Slingshot,” Black Widow said, “Wondering when you might turn up,”  
“Ha ha Widow,” I rolled my eyes, “You know as well as I do that I rather not share my identity with just anyone,”  
“That’s true,” Widow smiled “Take a seat. Gecko’s going to inform us on what Galvon was really trying to hide from us,” I sat down in between Spider Man and Hawkeye as Gecko stood up.  
“For the past two weeks, I’ve been undercover in England at a prep school known as King’s Station College for the Privileged. Located near King’s Cross Station, it’s a school where, as the name suggests, the privileged children of rich people go. As you know John Galvon was recently captured and has failed to comply with our questioning. What you don’t know is that Galvon has a family. Using some of my own connections, I found that John Galvon is just an alias he uses to hide his illegal actions from them. John Galvon’s real name is Jonathan Greenberg. He runs an accountancy business out of London. His wife, Juliana Greenberg, is a world renown botanist. Rumour has it that she helped design the flower arrangements for a few royal weddings, but I have yet to confirm said rumours. They have two children – a three-month year-old Cynthia and a seventeen-year-old Blake,”  
“What’s up with big age gap between the two children?” Spiderman asked.  
“Blake is what people used to call a bastard son. Juliana and Jonathan were 16 when Blake was born. When Juliana and Jonathan were 20, they took a three-year split before finally marrying each other. But careers took priority over continuing their family until just recently,” Gecko explained, “Blake lives and studies at King’s Station for nine months of the year. I made… friends with him during my stay. He’s Galvon’s connection to HYDRA. The current leader of HYDRA, Harper Hayes, has his own son attending the school under an alias. Much like his father, Joseph Hayes is HYDRA and Joseph is very, very convincing. All of Joseph’s friends, including Blake, are budding HYRDA agents. Blake is really the head of the Galvon empire. His father is just the scapegoat if Blake is ever caught,”  
“Damn,” Fe said, “That’s some crazy messed up story you have there, Gecko,”  
“I would make some comment about how teenagers shouldn’t be involved in this sort of thing but I’m not in a position to say that with a clear conscious,” I commented “So are you back? You usually never leave an assignment early – at least not since I’ve known you,”  
“I never left Slingshot,” Gecko glared “My assignment came here. Joseph and Blake are planning something here in New York. Probably New York City itself given its reputation,”  
“Well that’s just great,” Spider Man sighed.  
“Any chance you know they are planning?” Hawkeye asked. Gecko sighed.  
“Not even a chance. Blake keeps a lot of secrets secret. Even from the love of his life,” Gecko sounded almost heartbroken. If I knew any better, which I probably didn’t, I would say that Gecko had developed feelings for her assignment. My train of thought was interrupted when the quinjet’s alarm system started blaring. Black Widow and Hawkeye pulled up the closest hard light screen to see what the fuss was about.  
“We just found out what Blake and Joseph are up to,” Black Widow informed us, “They’ve planted a bomb somewhere in New York City in retaliation for Galvon’s arrest,”  
“Well of course it,” I muttered under my breath.  
“We need to get out there now,” Fe said “Start coordinating search grids with the other Avengers for the bomb and a search for Blake and Joseph,”  
“Don’t worry – the other Avengers are already on it. Red Bolt and Ligero are also coming to help,” Hawkeye continued “Slingshot I want you and Fe to meet up with Iron Man and Vision. Spider Man you’re going to help Ligero, Red Bolt and Scarlett Witch. Black Widow, Gecko and I will meet up with Captain America,”  
“I got dibs on the mini jet,” I called out “Fe has her suit, so she can fly herself,”  
“You’re really going to let me fly in the cold by myself? I thought we were friends,”  
“Oh we are – but the mini jet only fits one person,”  
“Spider Man can catch a ride with us,” Black Widow said “You better disengage the mini jet Slingshot before we take off. We’ll upload Iron Man and Vision’s coordinates to your hub screens,”

Iron Man, Vision, Fe and I had a small section of city near Midtown High. When I say small, I mean at least 50 city blocks. In those 50 blocks, somewhere, was my family’s apartment. I hoped Iron Man or Vision didn’t ask me to look in that particular direction. My parents, or my brother, didn’t know what my night job was. Usually I wouldn’t mind passing my home, but both my dad and brother were home, sick, and Mum was taking care of them. Even I couldn’t risk the slight chance that they would recognise me. So, besides my home, the 50 blocks contained a small skyscraper with some cheap 13th century gargoyle knock offs. I was sitting on one of the gargoyle heads, waiting for Iron Man and Vision to finally make their mind up on the best way to search our small area. Fe, sick of waiting around, had left 15 minutes earlier to scan the south end of our search area.  
“Someone needs to go with Fe – we were split into these group for a reason Iron Man,” Vision said, “I will go,”  
“Yes finally!” Iron Man proclaimed, “I was trying to get you to agree with that idea for 10 minutes,”  
“Well I’m glad you finally made your minds up – we need to get going if we want to stop the bomb threat or Blake and Joseph,” I said, standing up “Vision, Fe went southwards,”  
“Thank you, Slingshot. I shall go catch up with her,” Vision lifted off the ground and started flying off.  
“Well that leaves you and me Slingshot. Let’s take the north, shall we?” I nod and bring out my hoverboard. I activate it and step on. The hoverboard strapped my feet in. I lean forward to make it go forward. Iron Man followed me.

I started to recognize streets and buildings as we continued to go northward. We were about a city block length from my home when the bomb exploded. I watched as my apartment building, among others, get consumed in flames and crumble to the earth below. Sirens started sounding. Any other time I would have flown towards the damage, but I’d just seen my neighbourhood blow up, catch fire and crumble. I was thankfully hovering only a few inches over a different apartment building. I felt myself lower the hoverboard and set it down on the rooftop. I felt myself deactivate the foot straps and take a step onto the rooftop. I was shaking head to toe even with all the extra reinforcement that my suit had. I could barely stand, and it hurt to move any further than I already had. I never saw or felt Iron Man land on the rooftop. I only just felt him catch me as I feel to my knees; my body no longer able to hold me up.  
“Slingshot – are you okay?” I didn’t reply. “Abigail, what is wrong with you? Did you get infected with something?”  
“No,” Was all I could muster as I starred at the location of what had been my home. I faintly heard Iron Man call for Vision and Fe. All I could do was just stare as burning red flames started turning to grey smoke. I heard Vision tell Iron Man that my file indicated that I lived in the explosion area. There were multiple curse words uttered by the person inside the suit.  
“They’ll probably be looking for her at school,” Fe said “I’ll take her there. Someone get Hawkeye,”  
As Fe picked up my hoverboard, Iron Man helped me to my feet.  
“Just pretend that everything is okay. Let the school find you and act like you never saw this happen,” He told me. I don’t think I really took in what he was saying. Fe, with my hoverboard now gone, took me from Iron Man and hugged me close as she took off. Eventually I remember seeing the alleyway I had used on Friday to change as Fe and I landed. Happy was waiting for us there. He gave Fe my school bag. She helped me get out of Slingshot’s costume and into being Abigail again. She had to deactivate my glasses for me.  
“You remember what Tony said? Pretend you didn’t just see your home get destroyed,” Fe said. Handing my backpack to me, Fe hugged me tightly one last time.  
“I’m sorry,”

I was still in shock when I walked back into school. Only half an hour had passed since Happy had picked me up with Stassia and Peter. I was walking towards last period Spanish when I heard my name being called over the loudspeaker.  
“Abigail Jackson, please report to the front office,” I guess the school receptionist hadn’t made note that Stassia, Peter and I had left. Instead of going to Spanish, I went to the front office. Before entering I made sure that I looked like I didn’t know what I was about to hear. The receptionist told me that the building that I lived in had been caught in a blast explosion and that anyone in the building was more than likely dead. She also told me than they hadn’t been able to get in contact with my parents, so the school had called my emergency contact, Clint Barton. The receptionist gave her apologises and told me to sit in the office waiting area for Clint to show up. Even hearing the receptionist tell me that my family was more likely than not dead didn’t make it feel any realer. It also didn’t help with the shock. I waited ten minutes before Clint showed up. He looked awful; almost as bad as I felt. It was either because he’d been helping rescue services rescue anyone still alive before he realised exactly which building it was or because he too was in a state of shock. I didn’t wait for anyone to tell me what to do. I was on autopilot as I ran over to him and encased him in the biggest and longest hug I could give him. I never wanted to let go of my only family left. Clint held me just as hard. Knowing that I was safe I let myself cry and mourn. The hot tears flowed down my face and onto Clint’s hastily put on long sleeved shirt. Clint just whispered kind words and held me closer. Between the gasp for breaths, I told him what had happened. I don’t know how long we were like that before I finally let go of Clint and let him sign me out of school and take me to his pickup truck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and some kudos. I appreciate any and all feedback. :)


	4. Chapter 4

The others never caught Blake and Joseph that day. Apparently, Gecko had come close. Word was that she’d locked herself in her room at Avengers’ HQ for the past week. I don’t know if that’s true. I rarely left Clint’s apartment. I can count the amount of times I left on one hand. The first was to confirm identities. It wasn’t the fire that had killed my family; it was the collapsing building. Had the building not collapsed, they probably could have survived. The second time was to meet my grandparents at the airport. They were going to stay at a hotel and originally, I didn’t want to go see them, but Clint said it would be good for me to leave the apartment. The third and fourth times were to arrange the final details of the funeral for my family. My grandparents, despite losing their second son, were more than willing to handle the nitty gritty details so long as I made the final call on funeral songs, flowers and location and that I made a speech. The fifth time I had left the apartment was to attend the funeral itself. It was unfortunate that the day my grandparents had chosen was wet. Maybe it was my fault for choosing to have the service outside. But I didn’t have the money to have anything else. I stood in front of my family and friends of my parents and brother and spoke about how I loved my family. I threw the first flower on their coffins. I heard so many people that I didn’t know or never saw much of offer me their condolences. Once everything had been packed away, my grandparents took Clint and myself out to a restaurant. It was a fancy restaurant – one that I would have never stepped in. My grandparents told me I could have anything I wanted; all I ordered was a glass of coke and their fish and fries kids meal.  
“Abigail, I know this has been hard on you, but we need to discuss what happens next,” My grandmother said as she cut her steak.  
“As your closest relatives, we have the right to become your guardian,” My grandfather explained “Your grandmother and I would be more than willing to let you come live with us in Dallas. In fact, that’s what you need to do. You cannot stay with Mr Barton any longer than you already have,”  
“Actually, Mr and Mrs Jackson,” Clint said, “As her emergency contact and a family friend, I can apply for guardianship,”  
“As her family Mr Barton it is important that she comes to live us,” My grandmother said.  
“No,” I say, putting down my knife and fork. “I need to stay here in New York. I mean I love you guys but let’s be honest here, I haven’t seen you since I was 10. That was seven years ago. You send me money in a card for my birthday and for Christmas. I don’t get anything else from you. We don’t have the relationship that most of my friends have with their grandparents. If I go to Dallas with you I leave my friends. I leave behind my… internship at Stark Industries. I leave behind the people who have become my family as much as Mum, Dad and Oscar were. I leave everything that is important to me behind for what?”  
“I insist that you come back with us Abigail,” my grandfather said, “I will not have my granddaughter live a man I barely know just so she can stay in the state that killed her family,”  
“You make it sound like Clint is going to abuse me. He has a wife and three kids who he barely sees. I babysit his children so that he can take his wife to dinner and a movie when he does see his family. I trust Clint with my life. Mum and Dad trusted him enough to let me go on a weekend hiking trip with him to the Rockies. I’m not going to Dallas with you,”  
“Young lady how dare you speak to your grandfather like that,” My grandmother said.  
“Maybe we should talk about this at my apartment,” Clint suggests, “That way the public doesn’t become involved in private family affairs,” He says the last part with a certain hint of disgust at the people at the table next to us who have been listening in on our conversation since Clint brought up his eligibility for guardianship. My grandparents, knowing that Clint was right, didn’t argue and we all finished our lunch in an uneasy silence.

My grandparents, obviously trying to sway me back to Dallas, took me in their car to Clint’s apartment. On the way there, I texted Clint about the ace in my sleeve. My only chance that my grandparents would consider letting stay was Slingshot. Maybe if they saw what I had to lose, what New York had to lose, then my grandparents may reconsider letting me stay. When we arrived at Clint’s apartment, Clint was there, waiting for us. He stops me by handing me an envelope. It’s addressed to me but has my address as Clint’s. I cautiously open it. The first thing I see is a white piece of paper that’s been folded. I gently take it out and unfold it. At the top of the A4 piece of paper is the Stark Industries logo.  
“Dear Miss Jackson,” I read out loud, “I would first like to offer my condolences about the recent passing of your parents and brother. I’m truly sorry that you have lost your family. I would also like to offer $10,000 to go towards covering the cost of the funerals. I know it may not be enough, but I hope you are able to use to lessen your own costs. As I understand it, you have been an intern with Tony Stark for the past three years which I am very thankful for. The work you have done for us has been an amazing. Please know that your position as an intern is still yours if you want to continue working alongside us. I wish you the best of luck with your future. Yours sincerely, Pepper Potts. CEO of Stark Industries,”  
“Give us a look,” My grandfather says, taking the letter out of my hand. With my grandfather and grandmother looked at the letter from Pepper, I had a second look in the envelope. There was a folded-up piece of notepad paper. I take it out. The paper had been sealed with a sticker of Fe’s symbol.  
“I’m going to get changed,” I say, not caring if my grandparents stopped me. As I passed Clint he gave me a small nod of approval. My room was at the end of the hallway of Clint’s apartment. Closing the door behind me, I opened the letter from Stassia first. It was a quick note hoping that I was okay and that if I ever needed to talk she would be more than willing to provide a shoulder. There was also a quick message from Peter on the same piece of paper. I smiled at my friends’ attempts to make me feel better. It was the first piece of contact I had had with any of my friends in the past week. I folded the note back up and placed it on the large set of drawers by the door. I then reached for my bag and took it over to my bed. I opened it up. On top was my uniform. Like checking my messages from friends, my duties as Slingshot had been put on the back burner. I got out of the black dress my grandparents had forced me wear and into the uniform. Its tight fit was comforting; it made it feel like I could get pass my family’s deaths. To complete the look, I touched my implant and my glasses formed over my eyes. I thought about how I was going to approach the subject. I decided on just casually walking pass Clint and my grandparents, saying that I was going to meet up with Fe and Spiderman.

Walking down the hallway in Clint’s apartment is not like walking the halls of Avengers’ HQ. There’s no grand sense of adventure nor the awe of a teenaged girl who is walking in the same place as the greatest heroes of her generation. I walked casually pass my grandparents, who were sitting down on Clint’s couch, and Clint, who was still leaning against a wall, and start to open the front door.  
“I’m just going to meet up Spider Man and Fe. I’ll be back in a few hours,” I feel my grandparents give me a quick glance.  
“Just be home by 6 Slingshot. I’m ordering in pizza for tea,” Clint says. I feel the double take and turn around. My grandparents are looking dumfounded. It’s my grandmother who is the first to speak.  
“What is going on for goodness sake?”  
“Surprise,” I say, shrugging my shoulders.  
“Young lady you better explain why you are in such a get up,” My grandfather says. You could almost feel the fuming anger he’s feeling from the opposite side of the living room.  
“I’m Slingshot Grandad. You know, the young hero who’s often seen with Hawkeye,” I say.  
“You can’t be,” Grandma says in disbelief, “You’re just a high school student,”  
“Why do you think I got a personal letter from Pepper Potts saying she’s going to give me $10,000 to help cover funeral costs? I’m not just some random intern you know,”  
“I can’t believe Alex or Nora let you galivant around New York instead of studying all night, so you can get into Harvard!” Grandad says, “It’s just plain irresponsible,”  
“Mum and Dad didn’t know I did this,”  
“Actually…” Clint speaks up “They did. SHIELD protocol. All agents under the age of 17 in the training project who reach Level 2 clearance have to get permission from their primary caregivers to continue their training. Usually it’s the sponsor of trainee agent who has to get the permission, often without the knowledge of the agent themselves. Nora and Alex knew what they were doing when they said yes. They saw the skill that their daughter had and were than happy letting her to develop that skill and become an agent. Nora and Alex were always proud of Abigail did as Slingshot,”  
“And how would you know all this?” Grandad asked.  
“I thought it would be obvious – I’m Hawkeye,” Clint sighed “I was her sponsor during her SHIELD training. I was the one who asked her to be my protegee,”  
“That’s why I need to stay here in New York. I have responsibilities, not just to myself, but the entire world,” I said, ignoring the fact that Clint never told me that my parents knew “I also know who was responsible for the explosion that killed Mum, Dad and Oscar. The Avengers need my help,” The room fell silent.  
“Maybe you should go out, do some patrolling Slingshot. Maybe catch up with Fe and Spider Man,” Clint finally suggested “I’ll talk to your grandparents a bit more about what we do. But I was serious about being home by 6. I’m ordering in pizza,” I nod.  
“I’ll go out the back door,” I said, walking away from the front door “I’ll see you in a few hours,”

Fe and Spider Man were more than willing to meet up. They choose a rooftop that would make us invisible to the public eye from the ground and those eye level with the building. Spider Man brought a tub of ice cream while Fe carried enough cupcakes to feed a small army. After setting the cupcakes down on the rooftop, Fe let her helmet reveal her eyes, nose and mouth and hugged me.  
“How are you feeling?” She asked, holding me at arm length.  
“Better than I did,” I admitted, “I still miss them a lot. But right now, I’m just hopeful that my grandparents will let Clint take custody,”  
“Is it that bad?” Fe asked.  
“It might be. I don’t know. Clint literally sent me to do something you guys,”  
“Ouch,” Spider Man said “I’ve got ice cream we can binge on. It’s not Ben and Jerry’s- “  
“Hand over the ice cream Parker – did you bring spoons?” I cut Spider Man off.  
“I knew I forgot something,” Spider Man sighed “I’ll go grab some,” Fe and I watched Spider Man shoot a web and swing off the roof.  
“Want a cupcake?” Fe asked. I nodded. Fe opened her cupcake carrier and gave me one.  
“Vanilla Chocolate Chip is your favourite, right?”  
“How did you know?”  
“I’ve seen you eat my entire platter on them at the lunch functions,” I laughed a little. I took the cupcake out of its wrapper.  
“Is it true that Gecko has locked herself in her room at the base?” I asked, “Or is it just rumour?”  
“It’s true,” Fe sighed, “I think I’ve only seen her once, but I’m not always there. How did you know?”  
“Sometimes when I sleep my implant turns on if I’m lying a certain way. Scares the crap out of me when it does that,” I explain, “So I’ve heard some stuff in the few moments when I debate turning it off or not,”  
“I don’t know if I want to be sorry for you or not. About the whole implant thing,” Stassia said.  
“I wanted it. I actually came up with the original idea for it. I just wanted something I could access at any time,” I told Stassia “I want to have something similar for my uniform eventually but for now I’ll be happy to take a while to suit up,”  
“You know Tony’s looking into something that may do just that. Actually, I am with his help. I could put in a good word for you and get you to trial it out for me,”  
“That would be cool. Thanks,” Spiderman swung back onto the rooftop.  
“I’m back – with spoons,”  
“Finally,” Stassia smiled “Now pass us that ice cream Pete – we need to drown our feelings in cookies and cream and cupcakes,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and some kudos. I appreciate any and all feedback. :)


	5. Chapter 5

When I got back, I got out of my uniform before heading into the lounge room. It was 6 o’clock and yet there was no pizza on the coffee table ready for us to eat. My grandparents were sitting on the couch, watching the 6 o’clock news. Clint was just as non-existent as the pizza.  
“Where’s Clint?” I asked, slightly worried. The front door opened, and Clint came in, carrying four pizza boxes.  
“Damn,” Clint cursed “I hoped to beat you home,”  
“You said six, I was home at six,” I said, “Besides Spider Man had to go have dinner and Fe had homework to do for school tomorrow,”  
“You have always been punctual,” Clint smiled “Have they told you?”  
“Of course, not Mr Barton,” Grandad said, “It’s impolite of us to tell our granddaughter her future in your home when you’ve been so hospitable to us and to her,” I had a sinking feeling in my stomach.  
“I can’t stay, can I?”  
“No sweetie,” Grandma said, “We, that is to say your grandfather and I, think it is safer for you to come back. There’s no danger in Dallas. There will be no need for that Sling-whatever business,”  
“No!” I yell “You can’t do that!”  
“We can, and we will. It’s our legal right,” Grandad said, as calm as ever.  
“You won’t even let me stay to protect my city, my friends and everyone else. How could you? This is what I want to do. I want to save people. It’s something I’m good at. I don’t want to go with the grandparents I barely know! I haven’t seen you since I was ten. I’ve only gotten a card with money in it saying happy birthday or merry Christmas and nothing else since I was 15. And don’t think I don’t know why you stopped emailing me regularly or even calling once a month. I sent you an email saying I was bisexual and was seeing a girl at that time. I didn’t even get a reply after I sent that email. Well guess what? I’m not only bisexual, I’m non-binary. I’m not a that little girl you see me as. But at least I’m not one of those trans-whatevers right because that would be the absolute point of no return because you wouldn’t be able to pretend that I’m still your perfect little granddaughter who wanted a puppy for her eighth birthday anymore. Well you know what you can both do? You can both fly back to Dallas and go to your church and do whatever it is you do. But I am not going with you because I do not want to live with people who do not accept me for who I am whether it be as the non-binary bisexual high school student or the superhero saving countless peoples lives!” At this point my face was burning with my tears and I struggled to find my breath. Thankfully, my grandfather was ready to rebuttal, so I could take a quick minute to find my breath.  
“This is exactly why you need to come to Dallas. You are a disillusioned young girl whose head has been filled with ridiculous ideas. You need your head to be emptied of those ideas so we can set you back on the right path!”  
“You know what? Screw you Grandad!” I spat in the direction of my grandfather “I am not disillusioned. I am who I am and nothing you do will change that,” Grandad came towards me.  
“I think you should leave Mr Jackson,” Clint said, his tone icy in comparison to the fiery heat of mine and my grandfather’s “Take you wife and leave. I will be challenging your right to guardianship and I will take this to court if I have to,” Clint’s words, despite being just as angry as my own, gave no other course of action. Knowing that they were no longer welcome in Clint’s apartment, my grandparents left. In one last peace offering, Clint offered them the pizzas he had brought for them, but they both declined. I didn’t bother grabbing my own pizza box. I just went straight to my room.

When I got to my room, tears still falling, I put on my new penguin onesie and crawled under my four blankets. I cried for a while and I’m pretty sure I fell asleep for a bit. I mustn’t have been in a very deep sleep because I heard knocking at my bedroom door.  
“Come in,” I said. Clint slowly opened the door.  
“Hey Abs,” He said gently.  
“Hey” I said in reply, pushing myself up into a sitting position in my bed.  
“Do you want to talk about what happened with your grandparents? Or do you want some food. I can reheat your pizza if you want,”  
“Can I have both?” I asked. Clint smiled a little.  
“Yeah sure,” Clint disappeared from my doorway. I took the time it took to reheat a whole pizza to wake up a little bit more. I remember what I had said during the fight and regretted it a little. I hadn’t wanted to come out like that. Clint returned with the reheated pizza. He turned on the room’s light before sitting down next to me. I grabbed a piece of the cheese pizza first. I realised that I was probably stalling the talk Clint and I needed to have so I quickly ate the slice. But then the room was silent. Neither Clint or I wanted to make the first move.  
“I feel like I’ve made a mistake,” I finally said.  
“Why’s that?” Clint asked  
“Coming out like that. Ruining any chance, I have with the only biological family that I actually care about. Putting you in an uncomfortable position. I didn’t want this happen no matter how much it means to me to stay in New York,” I knew that if I hadn’t cried earlier I probably would be bawling my eyes out at this moment; but I had none left.  
“Abigail. What you did was not a mistake. You said it yourself; you are who you are, and nothing will change that,” Clint said, “Nothing you say is going to change the fact that you are basically my fourth child. I love you for who you are. I didn’t care that you were bisexual when you first told me and being non-binary does not change anything unless you want it to,” I grab a second piece of pizza. “I am going to fight for you to stay in New York if that is what you want. I will not let you go and live with people you feel you have to hide a part of yourself away unless that is what you want,”  
“Thanks Clint, you’re the best,” I say “I want to stay here. I want to continue being Slingshot,”  
“Okay then. I will do my best that you get what you need,” Clint promised.  
“I’m going to call Gecko. She knows nearly every law, she’ll be able to give us some helpful hints,”  
“Sounds like a good plan. I’m going to leave you to it. And the pizza. I’ll be watching something on tv or taking a nap if you need me,”  
“Thanks Clint,”  
“No problem Abs,”

I put off calling Gecko until I finished my pizza. With a full stomach I activated my implant.  
“Call Gecko,” I instructed my glasses through voice recognition. I waited a while for it to connect.  
“Hello Slingshot,” Gecko finally answer. She sounded tired, upset and angry at the same time. It was an odd mixture of tone that I had never heard from the young spy.  
“Are you okay Gecko?” I asked, slightly concerned.  
“No. I didn’t think you’ll want to talk to me after last week,”  
“Why would I not want to talk to you?”  
“I thought you would blame me for the death of your family. I… I could have stopped all of this from happening,” Gecko said.  
“You couldn’t have stopped all of this. You had no idea it would be a bomb that killed a few hundred people,” I told her, trying to comfort her “I don’t blame you because you did nothing wrong,”  
“That’s the problem Slingshot, I did do something wrong.” Gecko said, “I did know that there was going to be a bomb. Blake told me weeks ago. He wanted me to come with him to plant it. He didn’t tell me where or when he was going to do it. I declined, telling him that I probably had plans with my family. I should have taken more notice of his plans, but I… I couldn’t. At first, I really didn’t want to believe Blake had any involvement with HYDRA. I think a part of me still doesn’t believe it. He was perfect Slingshot. He did exactly what I expected a boyfriend to do…” Gecko stopped herself from saying anything else. I remembered the thought I had during the briefing; Gecko had developed feelings for Blake. But it seemed so much worse now.  
“The love of his life isn’t some random girlfriend that you didn’t bother mentioning the name of is it? It’s you,” I finally said, “You fell in love with him, and him with you,”  
“Yeah,”  
“Oh,”  
“Do you still not blame me for anything?”  
“I don’t blame you for falling in love. We’re both just kids. I blame the bomb and I blame Blake and I blame Joseph, but I do not blame you. Gecko I never blamed you,” I reassured her “That’s why you locked yourself in your room isn’t it? You blame yourself,” Gecko didn’t reply for a while.  
“How did you know?”  
“I was talking to Fe earlier. That and I remember hearing some chatter about it from the others,”  
“Oh,” An awkward silence fell over the conversation. For a while I assumed that Gecko had disconnected the call before she spoke up.  
“You called me for a reason Slingshot. What was it?”  
“I know you’re an expert on all things law. I have a custody problem that I really want to get solved as soon as possible. What’s the New York law about custody?”  
“Well anyone who plays an important role in the child’s life may ask the court for custody and it doesn’t have to be the child’s parent. In your case I’m guessing family member.” Gecko answered, “Since it’s between someone who is family and who is not, then the judge and the court will see if its an extraordinary circumstance. If there is, then the judge will consider what option is the best in the interest of the child. That includes which party has had the most input into the child’s upbringing, the parenting skills of each party, their health, domestic violence in the family, work schedules, the child’s relationships with the rest of the family, what the child wants and the two parties’ ability to cooperate with the other,”  
“So Clint would have a good chance at winning?”  
“Well… who has had more input into your upbringing?”  
“Clint. My grandparents live out of state, I haven’t seen them in person since I was ten and there’s no real regular contact,”  
“Parenting skills?”  
“Each party has raised kids,”  
“Health?”  
“Grandparents are elderly, but in good health. Clint is also in good health,”  
“Any history of domestic violence?”  
“Not that I know of,”  
“Jobs?”  
“Clint works a nine to five, grandparents are retirees,”  
“Family relationships?”  
“Strained it putting it lightly with my grandparents and I get along with Clint’s family much better,”  
“Who do you want to live with?”  
“Clint,”  
“And do you know that both parties are like when it comes to cooperating with each other?”  
“I think if my grandparents win I’ll never see Clint again, and if Clint wins then I’ll probably see my grandparents, but it will only be one my terms,” Gecko went silent.  
“I’m no court, and there will probably be a lot of other evidence that may sway the judge one way or the other, but I think Clint has a good chance,” She finally said, “Thanks for trusting me with that information Slingshot,”  
“You trusted me with something that would kill your career were you working with anyone else. I figured it’s the least I could. Thanks so much for the help. I really appreciate it,”  
“No problem. Let me know how it turns out,”  
“Yeah, sure,”  
“I’ve got stuff to do so I’m going to get going. Have a good night Slingshot,”  
“You too Gecko,” The call disconnected, and I deactivated my implant. I sat, my back against the wall for about three minutes before I decided that I need some proper sleep, and not just a nap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and some kudos. I appreciate any and all feedback. :)


	6. Chapter 6

Clint drove me to school the next morning. I had woken up and realised that taking a week off school was not a good idea. I would have missed so much homework and my grades had already been slipping this year. So, I checked my phone for the first time in weeks and read the countless messages from my friends Freya, Harriet and Lara. There was mention of various pieces of homework that teachers had given them and by extension me, if I was in that class. There was also a few messages of support and love on the day of the funerals. It made me very happy to see these messages. I got out of bed and walked to the kitchen to have breakfast. Unsurprisingly, Clint was not up yet. I found the bread and the toaster and set myself up for a simple toast breakfast. When Clint got up, I told him I wanted to go back to school. He didn’t argue and told me that I better hurry up otherwise I’d be late. There was in fact a last-minute dash to school, but I made it on time. Walking through the school halls was an odd sensation. It was not the awe-inspiring halls of Avengers HQ nor the mundane hall of Clint’s apartment. Yet it seemed that it held its own importance. I could never really explain the feeling I felt the first time I walked through school after a mission. This time it was slightly different; a shadow hung over it. This was, supposedly, the first time that I heard that I was an orphan and homeless. I saw some familiar faces look and stare at me. They knew what had happened. Everyone did. Then I saw Harriet. Or rather she saw me.  
“Abs!” She yelled “You’re back,” Harriet ran towards me and gave me a big hug.  
“Hey Harriet. How are you?” I ask, returning the hug a little.  
“How am I? I should be the one asking you! You’re the one whose had the week from hell,” Harriet says in disbelief. I sigh. As much as I loved Harriet, I really did not need a reminder every single second what had happened.  
“And that week from hell is over now Harriet. It’s time to find a new normal,” I explain, “Maybe you should tell me what I missed,” Harriet launched into a spiel of all the social changes.  
“You know Darcey Stephens right? The military brat? Well she seems a little frustrated at the moment. Apparently, her best friend Megan – the new girl who was once home-schooled – was meant to come back from her family vacation last week but hasn’t returned. I think Megan’s found some early summer romance and isn’t coming back. And then there’s a new sophomore – Alyssa Anderson is her name. She’s the one who was in the news a year or so because her parents spent five years raising an android or something instead of her,”  
“Are you really boring Abigail with the social status of the entire school on her first day back?” Lara asked, laughing a little at Harriet’s excitable social butterfly routine “How are you Abs?”  
“Do you want me to answer that honestly? Cause at the moment I really don’t want to talk about how I am. I want to know exactly what I missed in classes because I only skimmed what ever I had on my phone,” Lara gave me a look that said she would get an answer to her question whether I liked it or not but changed the subject anyway.  
“We have a Spanish test today, although I’m sure they’ll give you a pass on it since you’ve missed basically everything. I’m pretty sure that there was a French exam that you missed too. Oh, and we got our math test results back. I’m sure you did fine in that…” I listened to Lara just talk about what I had missed – even in subjects that I did take – as we walked with Harriet. It turns out the Freya was waiting for us at her locker. In her hand was a wicker basket. In that wicker basket was a loaf of freshly baked bread. It was a throw back to the early years of high school when Freya would bring a load of bread that was freshly baked once a week.  
“She’s been doing that all week, in case you turned up,” Lara explained “Which has been great because it’s amazing bread but not so great in the sense that Coach thinks that I’ve been eating too much carbs,”  
“Hey Abigail,” Freya said, “I’d ask you how you are but I’m not going to bother with that question,”  
“Thanks Freya,” I smiled gently at my friend.  
“I made some bread,” Freya held up her wicker basket “I thought we could restart the tradition,”  
“That sounds like a great idea Freya,” I hug my friend.  
“Abigail Jackson is giving out hugs now?” Harriet asked, laughing a little.  
“Sometimes even I need a hug Harriet,” I say, letting go of Freya “I need to go to my locker first though – Spanish is second period and I left my Spanish book in my locker,”  
“Well of course we can go to your locker,” Freya said, linking her arm with mine “Senor Valdez would probably kill you if you forgot your book,” We all walk towards one of the side entrances where another set of lockers adorned the walls. Mine was fifth from door which meant I could easily escape at the end of day if I was ever putting away my books. Many students liked coming in through the side entrances because it was a discreet way to come in as the principal or the vice principal never there to greet people. I personally didn’t bother going for the side entrances – it had been quicker for me to walk to the front door. As we approached my locker, I saw Stassia waiting at the locker. Like Freya, she had come bearing the gift of free food.  
“Hey Stassia!” Harriet called out “What did you bring?”  
“Cupcakes,” Stassia replied, smiling “Vanilla Chocolate Chip,”  
“Dude how did you know Abigail’s favourite flavour?” Lara asked, laughing a little.  
“I guessed – that and I ran out of coco powder,”  
“Fresh Bread and Cupcakes?” I say, “It’s a good thing I forgot my lunch,”  
“You always seem to be forgetting your lunch,” Lara said.  
“Well…” I shrug, “I don’t have a reasonable explanation for why I forget my lunch,” I go to open my locker. Out of the corner of my eye I see two boys walk into the school. They both look vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t remember where I had seen them before. I decided that I didn’t want to focus on the matter, so I grabbed my world history and my Spanish textbook out of my locker. Closing it, I turned to see three of my friends look at me in anticipation.  
“Please tell me you saw Blake and Joey Hamilton walk past,” Harriet begged.  
“Who?” I say, confused.  
“Blake and Joey Hamilton,” Freya said, “They’re twins and they’re new to the school. Started last Tuesday. They’re juniors and apparently, their dad is going to run for mayor of New York,”  
“Everyone is talking about them,” Lara said, “They are so gorgeous. Although rumour has it that Blake doesn’t want a relationship with anyone. He’s turned at least three girls. People are saying he’s getting over a heartbreak by the way he just seems to be following his brother around and going through the motions,”  
“I’m going to reserve judgements until I actually meet them,” I tell Lara, Freya and Harriet “And if Blake is getting over a heartbreak, it’s best to just let him heal,”  
“That’s good – I finally have some level-headed person agree with me,” Stassia said, “Don’t get me wrong Blake and Joey are hotter than anyone should be, but it doesn’t mean that everyone should be falling at their feet,” The school bell rang, cutting off further conversation.  
“We better get going,” Lara said “Don’t want to be late for homeroom. I’ll see you in Spanish Abs,”  
“Cya Lara,” I say, “I’ll see the rest of you at break?” Harriet and Freya nod before heading into the sea of students going to their homerooms. I was about to do the same when Stassia grabbed my arm.  
“Are you sure you didn’t recognise Blake and Joey?” Stassia asked.  
“I’m sure I’ve seen them somewhere. My mind just doesn’t know where,” I said, knowing Stassia had seen straight through my small lie.  
“Maybe Greenberg and Hayes ring a bell,”  
“No… you don’t think… they can’t really be coming to school here,”  
“I mean Gecko didn’t give us a photo during her briefing, which is odd, but two boys called Blake and Joey turn up literally the day after two boys called Blake and Joseph detonate a bomb just a few blocks from here? You tell me if something sounds a little bit fishy,”  
“Have you told Gecko?”  
“Haven’t been able to get through to her,”  
“Just get me images of Blake and Joey. I’ll get them to Gecko,” I tell Stassia, “Now we better hurry and get to homeroom. I will not be late on my first day back,”

Second period Spanish turned out to be second period Counselling. Senor Valdez told me to head to the counsellors’ offices as soon as I walked into Spanish. Without complaining I turned on my heal and made my way towards the administrating area. Our school, strangely, had three counsellors. I guess it probably had something to do with New York City being an epicentre for super villain activity. Each counsellor specialised in something. The first was an academic counsellor; Ms James. Ms James was often visited by over stressed freshman and seniors worried about which course they should take, careers wise. I had been in Ms James’ office only once after a long string Cs and a couple of Ds in sophomore year. I had quickly improved my grades and there had been no need to see her again. At least, not until senior year when it came to college applications. The second counsellor was Dr Connor Hasket. Dr Hasket saw all students with on going mental illnesses like anxiety and depression. The school promised to provide safe confidential counselling, but people could always tell that someone had mental health problems when they walked through Dr Hasket’s door. The final counsellor was your run of the mill guidance counsellor you see on TV shows and coming of age films. Mrs Abernathy was a sweet, loving person. Out of all the counsellors, I had visited it her the most. Whether it be other people’s drama that I had somehow gotten involved in or the over stressed monster I became when I left too many projects to the last minute, Mrs Abernathy always had an answer. I had seriously begun to consider vetting her, so I could get some real guidance. This time around, I didn’t know who wanted to see me. I waited for one of the counsellors to call me into their office in the hallway, sitting on uncomfortable plastic chairs. Next to me on one of the other seats was someone I hadn’t seen before. Her auburn hair was long and slightly messy. Her green eyes avoided any contact with my eyes while her hands fidgeted with something made of plastic. Dr Hasket came out of his door.  
“Alyssa, I’m ready for you now,” He said. The girl, Alyssa, looked up at Dr Hasket before getting up and going into Dr Hasket’s room. She must have been the girl that Harriet had told me about when I got to school. I waited a few more minutes before Mrs Abernathy opened her door. She smiled at me.  
“Hey Abigail, why don’t you come take a seat in my office,”

Mrs Abernathy’s office was nice. A small couch was sat under the window while Mrs Abernathy’s desk was placed on the opposite side of the room. There was a tall bookshelf covered top to bottom with various books from Harry Potter to school textbooks to books on psychology. Her office was painted a pale blue colour which I found was quite comforting. I took a seat on the couch while Mrs Abernathy took a seat behind her desk.  
“You know it’s usually me asks to see you not the other way around,” I joke, trying to make myself feel less nervous. I get a small laugh from Mrs Abernathy.  
“Trust me Abigail, I wouldn’t ask to see you unless the school really wanted me to,” She said, “I know you’re probably sick of this question, but I have got to ask, how are you feeling?” I take a deep breath.  
“Probably better than I did a week ago,” I admit, “It was kinda relieving to finally put my family to rest yesterday. Not that the relief lasted long cause there’s a whole new set of problems to deal with now,”  
“I was wondering if the question of your custody had been brought up,” Mrs Abernathy said, “I assume you will be going to live with your family in Dallas,” I shook my head  
“I don’t know. Grandad and Grandma want me to come back with them but… I don’t think I’d be safe down there. Then there’s the whole pressure of changing school right before senior year. I’ll probably lose all my friendships from up here. And there’s my internship at Stark Industries that I would really like to keep,” I explained, “And Uncle Clint is going to file for custody. A friend upstate told me that anyone who plays an important role in a child’s life may file for custody. But it will be an ugly battle, if you know what I mean,” Mrs Abernathy nodded.  
“I’m sorry you’re going to have go through this process Abigail,” She said, “How is your mental health?”  
“Probably not great. I… uh… before the funeral... I only left Uncle Clint’s apartment four times total. I’ve been out more in the past 24 hours than I have all week,”  
“Would you like me schedule in an appointment with Dr Hasket?”  
“No. Coming to school has made me feel a lot better, even with all the questions and the starring. But can I pop into your office when I need to?”  
“Of course, you can Abigail,”

Stassia caught me after school on my way out.  
“How was your day Abs?”  
“Alright. Could have been worse. How was yours?”  
“It was good. My best friend is finally feeling better and well enough to come back to school. My cupcakes were a hit and I’m pretty sure I got exactly what you asked for,” She handed me an USB. I took it from her.  
“I’ll get these to Gecko,”  
“Are you sure she’ll answer you?”  
“Yes,”  
“Why?”  
“She answered me last night,”

With my implant activated, I borrowed Clint’s secure holocube. I called Gecko through my glasses and patched it through to the holocube.  
“Two calls in 24 hours? You must be desperate for legal advice for your custody battle Slingshot,” Gecko answered.  
“I’m not here for any legal advice Gecko. I had an informant give me these photos. I need you to confirm their identities for me. According to my informant, their names are Blake and Joey Hamilton and they transferred to their high school last Tuesday,” I uploaded the two pictures Stassia had given me. The pictures of Blake and Joey Hamilton appeared next to the hologram of Gecko.  
“You’re thinking that they’re Blake Greenberg and Joseph Hayes, right?” Gecko asked.  
“What gave you that idea?” I asked, raising an eyebrow “Was it the similar names?”  
“Very funny Slingshot,” Gecko rolled her eyes “But yes, you are correct. Blake and Joey Hamilton are Blake Greenberg and Joseph Hayes. What high school does your informant go to?”  
“Midtown in New York,”  
“Darcey is going to kill me. I’m already a week late from arriving from holidays,”  
“You go to Midtown?”  
“Uhh….”  
“Okay, don’t tell me,” I said, “I’ll get back to you with our next step,” I finished the call with Gecko and brought up my files. I opened John Galvon’s files and then created a new, separate file. I started writing up a plan that would end with the capture of Blake and Joseph. I was so engrossed in my work that I did see Clint come and stand in my doorway.  
“Why do have my cube? You have your own,”  
“May I remind you that nearly everything I now own is new,” I answer, not looking up from the holocube “I haven’t had time to buy a new holocube so I’m borrowing yours,”  
“Right, I’ll get Tony onto sending you a new one,” Clint said, “What are you working on then,”  
“A plan. But it’s not finished yet. Mind if I keep at it for a while longer?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and some kudos. I appreciate any and all feedback. :)


	7. Chapter 7

I spent two days working on my plan in between school and catch up homework. I used all the authority I had to order Gecko into giving me all the information she had on Blake, Joseph and their fathers. Knowing that I had a lot of anger and blame to sort out, Gecko gave it without hesitation. Using the relevant information, I formed a plan. This plan involved the continued surveillance of Blake and Joey, further interrogation of Galvon and a final attack ending in the capture of Hayes and the majority of HYDRA. I wanted Fe, Spider Man, Gecko and newbies Ligero and Red Bolt to be on my time. I needed the six of us to work together to able to take down the master plan. I presented my plan to Clint who passed it onto Tony. Tony agreed with my plan and gave me the green light to start that weekend. I called my team on Friday night to inform them of what was going to happen using my new, updated holocube.  
“I’ve been greenlit to lead a mission to discover the truth behind the bombing almost two weeks ago done by Blake Greenberg and Joseph Hayes,” I told the conference.  
“You make this sound like it’s a military mission,” Red Bolt huffed, crossing her arms.  
“It’s not,” I say, “Spider Man and Fe, I want you two to continue surveillance of Blake and Joey Hamilton. You are to report anything out of the ordinary. I want to know if there’s any truth in the rumour that the fake Hamilton brothers’ father is going to be running for mayor. Gecko will be back up should you ever need to have an extra hand on deck,” I saw Gecko flinch a little bit out of the corner of my eye.  
“I’m pretty sure the rumours are true,” Fe said, “I’ve seen people put up billboards where I live saying Vote Hamilton for Mayor,”  
“Same in Queens,” Spider Man agreed.  
“Okay then. That slightly changes things. Gecko, your primary goal is to find every single piece of information you can on Mayoral Candidate Hamilton. I still want you to be ready to be back up for Fe and Spider Man,” I said, “Red Bolt and Ligero, at the moment I just need you to be ready for any away missions that we may come across. There could be more for you to do later on but at this point there is not much that is set in concrete,” Ligero nodded in agreement.  
“This is because we’re both new isn’t it?” Red Bolt asked, “Not that I’m disagreeing with your plan or anything  
“No – it’s because Spider Man, Fe and Gecko have the skills that are needed for this mission. They also are able to get close to Blake and Joey in ways that I don’t if you or Ligero could do,” I explain, “Not that I’m going to ask you to reveal any information about yourselves because it’s a total coincidence that I know what I know about Spider Man, Fe and Gecko,”  
“So, what are you going to do Slingshot?” Spider Man asked.  
“I’m going to talk to Mr Galvon,”

In my hands are three files. The first is on John Galvon. It’s the not largest one I have but it’s close enough. The file is filled with all known information about the infamous arms dealer from shady underground sales to the record high charity donations. The second is all the surveillance that Gecko found on John Galvon’s true identity, Jonathan Greenberg, and his family. This file is the largest. Not only does it provide clear links to John Galvon and John Greenberg, it also provides all the information on his wife and children, including photos copied from those in the Greenberg family home. The last file is thin. In it is five photos. It’s my secret weapon. I was fearful of using the file, but I knew, and I hoped, that it would be the final attack on his defence. It’s mid Saturday afternoon when I enter the interrogation room. I had been preparing this particular interrogation for a while. I knew that Hawkeye and Black Widow would be watching me through the double-sided window, ready to come to my rescue. The cold handle of the door reminds me of the tough conditions I was going into. I, a 17-year-old girl, was going to talk to a man at least twice my age with connections to one of the most deadly organisations in the world alone. As confidently as I could, I opened the door and walked in. Galvon didn’t look up as I entered, nor did he look at me when I set down my three files and sit down.  
“Afternoon Mr Galvon,” Galvon doesn’t look up. “Actually, I should probably address you as Mr Greenberg, shouldn’t I?” This made Galvon tilt his head a little. “Jonathan Greenberg. Married to Juliana Greenberg. Father to Blake and Cynthia Greenberg. An accountant at a business run by John Galvon. Did I get that right Mr Greenberg? No I didn’t did I – I forgot to mention that all of John Galvon’s accounts link back up to Jonathan Greenberg’s accounts. And I know for a fact that accountants don’t make that much money per year; even with Juliana’s income,” I opened up my first two file and brought out all of the pages referring to what I had told Galvon. Galvon read them with his eyes but made no comment. He looked at the photos, almost unsurprised when he saw family photos.  
“Do you want to know how we found out Mr Greenberg? We found out through your son, Blake. He’s been a busy boy lately. I don’t know how he manages to balance his responsibilities within HYDRA and his responsibilities at school. He must be crazy organised. That’s beside the point. Two Mondays ago, your son and his friend Joseph came to the States and planted a bomb. Our intelligence says its because they wanted to get back at us for getting to you,” I pulled out a photo of Blake and Joseph at JFK, “Personally I believe that because you have a key role that HYDRA needs you for – the scapegoat. Blake can’t continue being effective in their glorious battle if you’re not there. You happily let yourself be used to keep your son safe. I’d almost say that you’re doing the right thing – almost. But I need to bring your son and his friend to justice. Their bomb destroyed hundreds of people’s lives,” I opened the third file and took out three photos. “These are the bodies of Nora, Alex and Oscar Jackson. Nora and Alex worked nearly every day to provide for their daughter and son. They risked not having enough money to put food on the table by having them both take days off from work so that Nora could look after Alex and Oscar who were sick. The Jackson family were killed by the bomb that your son set. Nora and Alex’s daughter, Abigail, was left homeless and family-less and will have to endure a long court battle. Because of your son, her life is ruined. Because of your son, so many people have been affected and ruined. I am going to bring Abigail, and those many other people, some justice by bringing your son and his friend into the custody.” Galvon didn’t say anything. He just leaned back into his chair.  
“What if Nora, Alex and Oscar were Juliana, Cynthia and Blake? What would you do if one day you got the call from your boss to let you know that your home had been destroyed and your family killed while you were at work. What would stop you from finding justice? What would stop you? Because I’ll tell you what’s stopping me. You are. You’re the one thing in my way at the moment. So, stop being such a good father and tell me everything you know about a man named Hamilton and how your son got to be how he is, so I can find justice,” I had noticed the break in Galvon’s façade at the mention of swapping my family for his. I tried one last ditch effort.  
“Please help me find justice. Abigail and all the others affected are counting on me to find it. I know if it was your family, whom you love enough to have a secret identity to keep them out of your shady side, you would want me to find those responsible. So please Jonathan Greenberg, help me out,” The façade finally broke completely, and Greenberg split what he knew.

It took Greenberg and I four hours to get everything down of what he knew about HYDRA’s plan. Hamilton, the guy running for mayor of New York, was actually Harper Hayes. Hayes was going to gain control of New York, then he would bring in laws that would eventually lead to the entire enslavement of the citizens of New York. Blake and Joseph’s mission was to become a pillar in the school community and make Hayes look more and more human to the public. I had a feeling Hayes had something much worse planned, but for now, I was happy with what I had gathered. Interrogation drains a person. Clint and Natasha were waiting for me on the other side of the interrogation room door. Clint had a chocolate muffin and a take away cup of hot chocolate in his hands. Natasha took my notes and files from me as Clint handed me some food and drink.  
“You did a good job Abigail,” Natasha said, “What made you think you could get him to talk?”  
“The love for family. It’s a powerful motivator sometimes. Powerful enough that Jonathan keeps Juliana in the dark and uses a fake name,” I shrugged, “If you can exploit that, you can get almost anything done,” I took a sip of hot chocolate. It’s hot and sweet, just the way I like it.  
“That’s pretty smart,” Clint said  
“Did you get around to doing that check for me Nat?” I asked. Natasha nodded.  
“Come with me, and I can give it to you,”  
“I’ll meet you at the truck,” Clint said, “We’ve got a big day tomorrow,”  
“Don’t remind me,” I sighed, becoming slightly nervous at the reminder of the upcoming court battle. Clint and Natasha went separate ways after hugging. I followed Natasha to her office. She picked up a few pieces of paper stapled together and gave them to me.  
“You do know that we have trained, already vetted psychologists, right?” Natasha asked.  
“I know, but Mrs Abernathy is easier to reach out to for me. We’re in the same place five out of the seven days of the week. And I think it will probably be better if I had someone who wasn’t involved with the Avengers in anyway to talk to,”  
“Okay. I didn’t find anything suspicious in her record so all she needs to do is to sign the papers and you’ll be able to talk to her about the unclassified stuff,” Natasha explained.  
“Thanks Nat. It means a lot that you’ve done this,”  
“Everyone needs to talk to someone Abigail. Even super spies like me. Like Gecko. How did you reach her?”  
“I think she expected me to yell at her when she answered my call. She thought I blamed her for everything – which I don’t – and I know she blames herself. I think she’ll be willing to come out of her room. Maybe you two should watch one of those cheesey break up films while eating ice cream. I hear that it heals broken hearts,” Natasha nodded in agreement.  
“You’re a smart one Jackson. Now get going otherwise Clint is going to think we’re conspiring against him,”  
“I know as well as you do Romanoff, we’re defiantly taking Clint down the first chance we get at dodgeball,” Natasha laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and some kudos. I appreciate any and all feedback. :)


	8. Chapter 8

Sunday was the day I started the battle for my custody. Clint and I both dressed in suits. Clint wore a purple tie with his, making sure he looked as professional as possible. I wore a waist coat with my suit, but no tie in case I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I knew that eventually I might have to talk to the judge, but it was a scary thought. All of this was scary. Gecko had sent me a link to a simple, easy to understand website about what to expect at family court. Clint had been visited by a caseworker while I was at school on Thursday and I had a meeting with my appointed lawyer in a fancy café during my lunch period on Friday. My case wasn’t being appointed a guardian ad litem since I was 17. I knew that Clint and both my grandparents were going to be witnesses as well as Mrs Abernathy, who my grandparents had wanted to testify hopefully in their favour. I also packed what I owned into one of Clint’s old duffels. I didn’t have much to my name; just some new clothes and pjs and my school work that I had in my backpack on the day of the bomb. Even the suit I had on for the court hearing was new – I had gone shopping the Wednesday after my first day back at school to get some new clothes. Clint got me from my room at 11:30am and we were at the courthouse in Queens by noon. We were quickly ushered into a courtroom. My lawyer was waiting for me in the second row behind Clint’s table. I went to sit next to my lawyer while Clint went to sit at his table with his lawyer. My grandparents, and their lawyer, were sitting at the other table. Mrs Abernathy had yet to arrive and there were a few people that I didn’t recognise. The doors to the courtroom we were in closed at 12:15 after, to my surprise, Tony Stark walked in. He sat a few rows behind me and Clint. Mrs Abernathy had arrived at 12:10 and sat right at the back on my grandparents’ side. Everyone in the court room stood up as the judge presiding my case. The judge sat down and called the session into order. I watched as Clint was called to the stand first. He swore an oath to tell nothing but the truth to those attending court and the judge.  
“Mr Barton, when did you first meet Abigail Jackson?”  
“I meet Abigail when she was 12 years old. I had a part time job at the archery range she went to,”  
“And what was your relationship with Abigail then?”  
“I was her mentor. I trained her – well enough that she could have been nationally ranked in archery if she wanted to. I taught her how to properly wield a bow, throw a throwing knife and get pin point accuracy with her slingshot,”  
“Am I correct in saying that Abigail did not want to be nationally ranked in archery?”  
“Yes. Abigail told me that when the aliens invaded New York that she had killed three aliens with a slingshot that she owned and that she would rather be able to defend herself than have her three kills be flukes. I never pushed her into competitions or getting nationally ranked.”  
“And what do you do now for a living Mr Barton?”  
“I work at Stark Industries in their Research and Development department. I’m handy when it comes to electrical wiring,”  
“Is it correct that Abigail also works at Stark Industries as an intern?”  
“Abigail does have an internship. I was one of her referees when she applied for it. We don’t usually cross paths when she works, but the guys at the testing stations love having her trial anything they’re working on, so I do occasionally see her,”  
“And Abigail’s parents, Alex and Nora, are okay with your involvement in Abigail’s life?”  
“Alex or Nora would pick Abigail up from the archery range. Abigail would be adamant in tidying up everything she used as well as taking proper care of any bow she borrowed from the range. I often got to talk to her parents while we waited for Abigail. Alex and I became close friends and Nora was always asking me to come over to their place or dinner and to bring my wife and children with me,”  
“And did you ever accept Nora’s requests for dinner?”  
“I’ve been to quite a few dinners made by Nora. Likewise, the Jackson family have stayed at my family’s homestead occasionally. Abigail babysits my daughter, Lila, and my two sons, Cooper and Nathaniel when my wife, Laura, and I have date nights,” The lawyers took their time picking apart Clint’s story and life. There were bits that Clint couldn’t give the truth but had come up with reasonable explanations for things like why he lived in New York while his family lived on a farm and why their farm wasn’t registered. Then my grandparents took the stand one by one. They left out parts about how we had a shouting match over my sexual orientation and gender identity and how they had rudely disrespected Clint. I got really angry at it. My lawyer noticed it and whispered to me that I would be able to say my own piece towards the end. After my grandparents’ testimonies, the judge called a 15-minute recess. My lawyer took me to grab a hot drink and a chocolate muffin at a bakery just down the road from court house. When everyone was back from recess, Mrs Abernathy had a chance to take the stand. She didn’t make it clear which she was taking, but always returned to the point that whatever decision the judge made must be made in way that would help my mental health after my loss of family. Tony took the stand after Mrs Abernathy.  
“I was the one who employed Clint Barton at Stark Industries,” He told those present in court “I may not be a major part of Stark Industries, but I still like to visit the Research and Development department when I can. Clint is a hard worker. I can’t really say anything else on that matter since it will probably spoil some trade secrets. I’ve also had the pleasure to meet Abigail. Her work ethic is admirable – no doubt that it has come from the countless hours spent honing her skills at that archery range,” The lawyers asked more questions and Tony answered them making sure that it was clear that Clint was the person he had chosen to stand behind. After Tony, the caseworker talked about what they had learnt about both Clint and my grandparents. Their job was to only report what they had seen during their visits. The caseworker did mention that she had no real way to truly confirm anything my grandparents had told her due to the fact that they were from Dallas, Texas and not New York. Once the casework was done, she was able to leave the stand.  
“Now we will hear from Miss Jackson,” The judge said. I took in a deep breath to try to stop my hammering heart. I stood up and straighten my waist coat and jacket before making my way to the stand.

The bailiff presented me with a bible. I placed my right hand on it and raised my left.  
“Do you swear to tell the absolute truth?” The bailiff asked.  
“I do,”  
“You may be seated,” The bailiff said. I took my seat. One of the many lawyers in the courtroom came towards me.  
“Can you please state your full name and date of birth?” She asked.  
“Abigail Joanna Jackson. 24th of August 2000,” I reply.  
“Thank you, Miss Jackson,” The lawyer said, “Can you please tell me of your relationship with Mr Barton?”  
“Clint happened to be working at the archery range that I found would let me use a slingshot and paintballs for a cheap membership rate. He saw my talent and gave me proper training. My mum often invited Clint over for dinner, even told him to come with his wife and children. He became my mentor, not just with archery. My dad also built a strong relationship with Clint. I’ve babysat Lila, Cooper and Nathaniel for a few years now. Clint also became my emergency contact a few years ago in case of an emergency and my parents couldn’t be reached. He’s the one that my school, Midtown Science and Technology, called when our apartment building got blown up. Clint’s been there for me more than anyone else,”  
“And what about your relationship with your grandparents?”  
“It’s… not good. The last time we saw each other in person was when I was 10. We went down to Dallas for Grandad’s 70th birthday. We just haven’t had a lot of money or the time to go back. I don’t know what my grandparents’ excuse for not coming to see us is. It probably has to do with the fact that they stopped reply to my emails about two years ago. I still got birthday and Christmas cards from them, but nothing else. I don’t know if they had any contact with Mum, Dad or Oscar,”  
“Do you have any idea why your grandparents stopped replying?”  
“I suppose it had something to do with the fact that my last email I sent to my grandparents was about how I was in love with a girl and that I was bisexual,” I say, “What my grandparents also forgot to mention was the verbal fight we had about the day of my family’s funeral because not only am I bi, I’m non-binary. Although my gender identity and sexual orientation didn’t start the fight, it surely ended it,” The courtroom fell into silence. My grandparents shuffled in their seats uncomfortably. I heard someone cough.  
“So… your opinion does hold some sway in the judge’s decision due to you being 17 years old. Who would you like to live with?” The lawyer asked.  
“Hands down Clint Barton. The two choices are living with people who hate who I am and living with someone who loves and cares for me. I’d be an idiot to say I want to live with my grandparents. But that’s not the only reason I want to live with Clint. The next school year will be my senior year. It would be awkward to switch schools now – I have a good set of friends with Lara, Harriet and Freya and I’ve made a few new friends over the past week or two. I don’t want to risk losing those friendships. I also like living in New York too much to give it up now,”  
“Thank you, Miss Jackson,” The lawyer said, “I’m sorry for your loss,”  
“Thanks,” I said. The lawyer walked away, and I got up from the stand. I walked back to the seating area and sat next to my lawyer.  
“I will make my judgement tomorrow, it’s getting late,” The judge said, “I want everyone back in this courtroom at 9am,”  
“Uhh… I can’t make it tomorrow I have a Spanish make up test for the one I missed last week,” I whisper to my lawyer. My lawyer nods and stands up.  
“Excuse me your honour, my client, Miss Jackson, cannot make it at the time you have suggested. She informs me that she has a Spanish make up test,”  
“You speak Spanish Miss Jackson?”  
“Si señor. Je parle français aussi,” I reply  
“Very well then, we will take a five-minute recess while I make my decision,”

The five-minute recess took forever. I sat with my lawyer nervously outside the court room. Five minutes turned into ten, and then eventually fifteen. One of the bailiffs called us back into the court room with everyone taking their original positions. Because we all knew that the judge would be proclaiming who had my custody, my grandparents, Clint, myself and our respective lawyers remained standing. The judge returned from his chambers and sat down on his seat.  
“It the case of the custody of Abigail Joanna Jackson, I give full legal custody to Clinton Francis Barton however, Mr Barton and Miss Jackson’s grandparents will have to attend mediating sessions to work out visitation rights for Mr and Mrs Jackson,” I let out a deep breath. Clint turned around and smiled and nodded. He turned back around and shook hands with his lawyer. I looked over towards my grandparents. My grandmother had some tears in her eyes, but otherwise my grandparents didn’t look too upset with the outcome.  
“Court is adjourned,” And with the sound of a gavel hitting wood, the major part of my custody battle was over. Clint was my legal guardian. I got what I needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and some kudos. I appreciate any and all feedback. :)


	9. Chapter 9

I had French first period on Monday with Madame Lyons. Stassia and I walked into the room. I looked around the classroom and saw Joey sitting in my usual spot. He hadn’t been in the French class during the period of French we had on Thursday. Joey caught me looking at him and smirked. It was evil and full of cunningness. He knew exactly who I was, and he knew exactly what he had done. I felt Stassia’s hand on my shoulder but nothing else. I just kept staring at Joey and he kept staring at me.  
“I’m going to take her to Mrs Abernathy,” I heard Stassia tell Madame Lyons. I felt Stassia lead me away from the French classroom. As we got further away from the classroom I began to feel everything else.  
“He knows who I am,” I mutter.  
“He probably knows who we all are then,” Stassia said “Are you okay?” I shook my head.  
“I just came face to face with the guy who murdered my family. I froze while he just sat there and smirked. He was in my seat too. He’s got to be toying with me,”  
“Did you bring the papers for Mrs Abernathy to sign? Oh, don’t look all surprised – Tony mentioned that you were going to get her to sign forms that meant you could talk to her – and by extension us because he got Natasha to rework the papers to include all of us,”  
“That’s… a really good idea. Should of thought of that,”  
“I can’t speak for all of the team, but as far as I know you’re the only one who has been through a traumatic experience. You deserve to be able to talk to someone who has absolutely no connection to any one of us,” Stassia said, “Are you okay with getting to Mrs Abernathy on your own?”  
“Yeah, I’m alright to get there myself. Take notes for me please – This is like the seventh French lesson I’ve missed,” Stassia laughed a little before turning around.

I knocked on Mrs Abernathy’s office door.  
“Come in,” I heard her voice say. I opened the door. Mrs Abernathy was sitting at her desk, writing something on her laptop.  
“Hey Mrs Abernathy. You said I could drop in when I needed to,”  
“Abigail, hello. What a pleasant surprise. Please take a seat,” I took off my backpack and sat on the couch. I opened my backpack and took out the papers Natasha had prepared me. I held them up.  
“What do you have there Abigail?”  
“I need you to read and sign before I say anything else,” I got up and walked over to Mrs Abernathy’s desk and handed the papers to her, “Is it okay if I do my homework while I wait? Spanish is next period and I haven’t been able to finish this assignment,”  
“Of course, you can Abigail, take as much time as you need,” Mrs Abernathy said as she took out her reading glasses.

“Your internship at Stark Industries isn’t really an internship is it?” Mrs Abernathy asked. I looked up from my Spanish textbook. I watched Mrs Abernathy sign a piece of paper and hold it out towards me. I put down my textbook and got off the couch. I took the papers from Mrs Abernathy and skimmed it, looking for all her signatures. Everything was signed.  
“I do do the occasional stint over in the R&D department, but yeah it’s not really an internship,” I shrugged, “It’s a cover story for when I need to explain to someone why I can’t do something,”  
“Did your parents know?”  
“They apparently did. I told my grandparents. I needed to let them know why I had to stay in New York,”  
“I’m assuming your guardian is also a hero,”  
“I cannot deny nor confirm,” Mrs Abernathy laughed a little.  
“What can I do for you, now that I’ve signed your contract?”  
“I know who killed my family and one of them was sitting in my seat in French literally two days after someone gave me all the information they could on them. I know I freaked out – it was bad enough that a friend had to take me here,”  
“I assume that this person doesn’t take French,”  
“He hasn’t been at any of the French lessons I’ve been in. It may be a coincidence that he decided to transfer to a language class, but to sit in my seat and then smirk all while I can’t do anything but stare – that isn’t a coincidence,”  
“How would he know where you sit if he hasn’t been in your French class?”  
“Mrs Abernathy, believing something is just a coincidence and nothing else gets people in my line of work killed. He knows who I am, and I don’t know how,”

I’ll be the first to admit that talking to Mrs Abernathy for the two hours that I did after seeing Joseph in my seat was good for me. Not only did it give me a chance to talk about what I did with someone who had no particular interest in me, but it also helped me really deal with my grief and panic attack I had when I saw Joseph. The rest of the week went fast. I did all the make up test I needed to as well as whatever homework I had been assigned for that week. I fully moved into Clint’s apartment while my grandparents went back to their home in Dallas, informing Clint, and the courts, that they would get in touch re visitation rights. Between the previous weekend’s excitement and the amount of school I had, it was no surprise that it wasn’t until early Saturday morning that I was able to inform my team what I had learnt from Greenberg. Everyone, but Fe looked tired. It was probably because Stassia liked getting up at 5:30 most mornings while the rest of us barely got out of bed before 7. Getting everyone out of bed before 6 did not help my case.  
“What’s up Slingshot?” Spider Man asked, yawning.  
“I wanted to let you guys know what I learnt from Greenberg,”  
“Who’s Greenberg?” Red Bolt asked.  
“She means Galvon – Greenberg is his real name,” Gecko explained.  
“W-why should we care if someone has… an alias? Is that the right word?” Ligero asked meekly. Out of my team, I had interacted with Ligero the least. When I had interacted with her, it had been awkward to say the least. Ligero always seemed anxious and on edge. I’m sure there was a good reason why she had become Vision’s sidekick. I’m sure there was a good reason why I had asked for her help on this mission. It probably had something to do with the fact she could manipulate gravity and she could fly unaided. Unlike half of my team who had to rely on things like hoverboards and webs to get around quickly .  
“Because Johnathan Greenberg and John Galvon know what is going on. But only Greenberg is willing to share information,” I told my team, “And he told me why Blake and Joseph are attending a New York High School,”  
“Do tell me it’s something good,” Red Bolt said.  
“I’m sure it is,” Gecko sighed, “Slingshot doesn’t just call everyone at 6 o’clock on a Saturday,” I glared at Gecko’s hologram.  
“I’ll have you know that I’ve been very busy this past week – I’ve only just caught up with school work,” I tell her, “Any way I need to tell you all this now before it’s too late. Joseph and Blake are posing as brothers Blake and Joey Hamilton. The Hamilton boys’ father is running for Mayor of New York City and let me tell you now that it’s not going to be pretty if he wins. Hamilton… I don’t actually know his first name oddly enough… is actually Harper Hayes, Joseph’s father and the current head of HYDRA,”  
“What do you mean? it’s not going to be pretty if he wins?” Spider Man asked.  
“Mind control all of New York, then the whole state, then the country and then, eventually, the entire planet. I don’t think he’s planning on going further at this stage,” I answered, “Which is why we need to stop him now,”  
“And how do you think we should do this?” Fe asked  
“We’re going to go undercover and be saboteurs of course. Hamilton has his campaign launch party tonight. We’re going to get in and see what Hamilton is like first. Then every event Hamilton puts on after that we sabotage it. It may put pressure on Hamilton’s opposition because everyone will believe its political espionage, but it may also help show to the general public that something has to be up,”  
“If we want to cast suspicion off the other candidates then we should sabotage them, but less frequently,” Gecko said, deep in thought “While it may look like an anarchist, it would hopefully make it harder for Hamilton to get votes,”  
“I suppose you have a plan for tonight?” Red Bolt said.  
“Sort of. Fe, Spidey, remember that mission we went on together a few weeks ago? The one at the charity gala?”  
“You mean the one where Tony got into a fight?” Spider Man said.  
“I’m pretty sure Tony’s gotten into plenty of fights on mission,” Fe said, “But yeah, we remember,”  
“Cool. I want to do something similar. Fe, do you think you can get Tony to give those earring comes he created to us?”  
“I can probably get them to everyone by midday. Do you want the dress you wore to the gala?” I thought about it for a while. Hamilton probably would know by now that I was at the gala when Galvon was taken if his son had sat in my seat in the French classroom.  
“Yeah, I think I will. You should too,” Fe nodded, “Red Bolt, Ligero. We’re going to split into teams of two. You guys should pick first,” Ligero took her time to think while Red Bolt jumped the gun.  
“Spider Man. I’ll work with Spider Man,”  
“Sounds like fun,” Spider Man said, “I’ll get in contact with you later in regard to how we’re getting there,”  
“What about you Ligero?” I asked.  
“I’ll… I’ll work with Fe,” Ligero said reluctantly.  
“Cool,” Fe said. Knowing who was under the helmet, I knew Stassia would be beaming.  
“That leaves me and you Slingshot,” Gecko said, “I’m assuming you’ll get all the finer details sorted for us,” I nodded.  
“For now, I just need all of you to prepare for Blake and Joseph recognizing you. For most of us it will be an odd experience. I assume you two have the Stark Internship cover story?” I directed my last question at Red Bolt and Ligero. They both nodded.  
“I think Tony Stark is going to send his interns who are the future voters to learn about politics,” I said, “That’s all I needed to talk to you about at the moment. I’ll call all of you guys at midday to give out the complete mission parameters. Gecko, do you mind have a private chat with me?”  
“Of course not,”  
“Okay guys, have a good day,” Everyone but Gecko echoed similar goodbyes and disconnected the call from their ends.  
“What did you want to talk about Slingshot,”  
“I’m thinking ahead of tonight. Blake has been at Midtown for two weeks now and you haven’t been there. It will be one thing to trip them up at the campaign launch, but it would be another to trip Blake and Joey at school,”  
“What are you suggesting exactly?”  
“I’m suggesting you stop avoiding reality and come out of your room and walk into Midtown with your head held high. Blake can’t do anything without revealing who he is. Nor can Joey,”  
“I’ll think about it,”  
“Mrs Abernathy is a counsellor at the school. I know that she has signed papers with the Avengers silence program. You’ll be able to talk to her should you need to,”  
“I’ll think about it Slingshot,” Gecko cut the call short. I sighed. I knew letting Ligero and Red Bolt chose their teammate helped earn me their trust but sometimes I found Gecko to be annoying. We’d almost always been on at each other’s throats. In a friendly rival sort of way. Like me, Gecko had been in SHIELD training when it collapsed; she’d been in the class below me but everyone in my class had heard the rumour she would be fast tracked into ours. I lorded my Level 3 clearance over her Level 2 clearance whenever I could. Gecko always made a point that she was much better at the stealth part of spying then I was; and I always corrected her since I was marksman not a spy. But sometimes one of us (usually me) takes our friendly rivalry too far. Like the time when I spent a full 24 hours just speaking French. There was a knock on my bedroom door.  
“I know you’re up Abs. Do you want breakfast, or do you want to go for a run?” I heard Clint ask. I touch my implant, retracting my glasses.  
“We could run to that café two blocks over and get pancakes for breakfast,” I suggest, pushing myself up off my office chair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and some kudos. I appreciate any and all feedback. :)


	10. Chapter 10

“This is Fe, checking coms,” I heard Fe say over coms. It was an hour before Hamilton’s campaign opener and I was getting ready for my night out in the city.  
“Gecko checking in,”  
“Spider Man is all in the clear,”  
“Red Bolt reporting in,”  
“This is Ligero speaking, I’m here,”  
“And Slingshot is rounding out the role call,” I said, “Does everyone know the plan?” Everyone sounded off a yes. I took in a deep breath.  
“Then I’ll see you all tonight – remember we do not tell each other’s secrets to the rest of the team. I do not want to hear who you guys are because I don’t want your families to be put in danger,” I heard rounds of agreement from my team. My com went dark and I finished getting ready for the night’s job.

Gecko had told me to meet her at her home address. Clint drove me around in his pick-up truck. When we pulled to the side of the road to park, Clint laughed a little.  
“Of course, Joy’s daughter got involved.  
“You know who lives here?”  
“I cannot deny nor confirm,”  
“That’s my trick,” Clint smiled and got out of the car. I undid my seat belt and carefully got myself out of the car. Before closing the door, I picked up my purple clutch that contained my phone, some cash and a few other things. Clint and I crossed the road and walked up the stairs to the doorway of 73 Burwood Street. I knocked on the door.  
“All you had to do was drop me off Clint. You didn’t have to walk me to the door,”  
“I was going to do that, before I realised who you were going to meet,” The door opened. On the side was women with brown skin and long black hair.  
“Clint Barton?” She said, “What are you doing here?”  
“Good to see you too Joy,” Clint smiled, “I’m just dropping Slingshot off,” Joy nodded.  
“Megan! Your friend is here!”  
“Coming Mum!” I heard Gecko’s familiar voice call out.  
“I’m Joy Greenwood, nice to meet you Slingshot,” Joy said.  
“Call me Abigail Mrs Greenwood. It’s nice to meet you too,”  
“Dad! I’ll be back later tonight. And no, I won’t be bringing back any boy!” I heard Gecko call out as she came to the front door. A girl with the same skin tone as Mrs Greenwood came to stop on her side of the door. Her black hair was tied into a pony tail. She wore a single strapped golden dress with matching earrings and necklace. The girl looked super familiar. Fiddling with her earrings, she hadn’t looked up.  
“Megan don’t forget to be home by one. Otherwise we will ground you,” Mrs Greenwood said  
“Don’t worry Mrs Greenwood, the event is over by midnight according to all the articles I’ve read in the past 12 hours,” I reassure Megan’s mother. Megan looked up and made contact. And I instantly recognised her as Megan, the girl who had turned up at school almost three months ago and then disappeared on a family holiday overseas two months ago.  
“Oh my gosh,” Megan said, “You really got to be kidding right? You can’t be Slingshot,”  
“Actually, I can be thank you very much. Midtown has a serious young hero crisis,”  
“Let’s just get this over with,” Megan said “The uber I called is going to be here in a minute,”  
“I’ll see you when I get home Clint,” I told my guardian, “It was nice meeting you Mrs Greenwood,” Megan walked out of her house and down the stairs to the road curb. I followed her down. Together we watched a car pull up to the curb and we got in.

“Um Hi, we’re two of the interns from Stark Industries,” I said to the receptionist lady when Gecko and I got to the New York City Hall.  
“Yes… I assume you two must be Misses Jackson and Greenwood,” The receptionist said. Megan and I nodded.  
“Mr Parker and Miss Stephens are waiting around the corner for the rest of your group. Keep these passes on you at all time and when the rest of your party arrives you will be taken to your table. Enjoy your night,” The receptionist handed us our passes and directed us to our teammates. Waiting for us was Spider Man and Red Bolt. Spider Man was wearing the suit he had been wearing on our Galvon mission while Red Bolt was wearing a hot pink thigh length, single strapped dress with silver heels. I should have realised when the receptionist said Miss Stephens that Red Bolt was Darcey Stephens, the military brat in my last period on a Friday study period. This meant that Gecko and Red Bolt’s reunion was not going to be good. As Gecko and I approached, I reminded Spider Man and Red Bolt of what we were there to do.  
“Don’t forget – mission first, people behind the masks second. We can talk about who we are tomorrow,”  
“Trust me, I will be talking tomorrow,” Red Bolt says, glaring a little bit at Gecko.  
“Where are Fe and Ligero?” Gecko asked in a whisper, ignoring her friend’s glaring.  
“Fe said they’d be here any minute,” Spider Man whispered back. A pinging sound was heard from Spider Man’s direction. Spider Man pulled out his phone and checked it.  
“Actually, they’ve just arrived,” Spider Man corrected himself.  
“I hope you’re putting your phone on silent,” Red Bolt said, “I don’t want to be embarrassed because the person I’m sitting with forgot to turn their phone off,”  
“Okay, okay I will,” Spider Man said, turning his phone off.  
“Hey guys!” I heard Fe’s voice call out. We all turned around to see Fe walking confidently towards us with Ligero almost hiding behind her.  
“Hey Stassia,” I say, “Looking beautiful,”  
“Thanks,” Fe said, “Have you guys meet Alyssa yet? She’s one of the new interns at Stark Industries,” Fe stepped aside to allow us to see Ligero clearly. Like with the rest of my team, Ligero went to Midtown. I recognised the name and face of Ligero as the girl I had sat next to while waiting for Mrs Abernathy when I first went back to school.  
“Hello,” Ligero said, rubbing her hands.  
“Nice to meet you Alyssa, I’m Abigail,” I said, “That’s Peter, Darcey and Megan. You go to Midtown, right?” Ligero didn’t have time to answer me as one of the security guards came over to us.  
“You kids the Stark interns?”  
“Yes, we are,” Peter said, “Is it time for Mr Hamilton to speak?” The guard nodded.  
“If you’d follow me, I’ll show you to your table,”

Tony must have pulled a lot of strings as we were given a table next to Hamilton’s which was right by the stage. At Hamilton’s table, there were two spare seats; Blake and Joseph were nowhere to be seen. Waiters and waitresses glided throughout the hall, offering drinks and small deserts to the guests. Noticing that we were all minors, one of the waiters asked if they could get us anything that was non-alcoholic. Gecko ordered a plain water while the rest of us order a fizzy drink. I personally ordered coke while Spider Man and Red Bolt ordered Sprite. Fe chose to have Fanta, leaving Ligero to choose. In a rushed reply, she ordered the same drink as Fe. The waiter left and later returned with unopened cans, glasses and an ice-cold pitcher of water. Enjoying our drinks and food, we listened to one of Hamilton’s sponsors.  
“Hello and welcome to tonight’s campaign announcement!” The sponsor said, “I’m Todd Godward and I have the pleasure of announcing the possible future mayor of this great city. Now I’ve known this man for a very long time and thoroughly enjoy his company whenever we both have time to meet. I’m sure you’ll love him to. So, without further ado, here’s the man you all are here to meet – Hayden Hamilton!” Being a polite member of the audience, I clapped for the man walking on stage. Hamilton waved to the crowd of people who had come to his launch. Eventually everyone stopped clapping and Hamilton was able to speak.  
“Good evening everyone, I’m sure you’re all having a great time,” Hamilton said, “I know I am. Now tonight is meant to be the official launch of my campaign for mayor, but I think that this event should also be a sort of get-to-know-me event. For some of you, you’ll probably never have heard or meet me before. So, let me introduce myself. My name is Hayden Hamilton. I actually grew up here in New York City with my late younger brother and my wonderful parents who couldn’t make it to this event tonight due to their prior commitments with their country club,”  
“Asking for the sympathy vote with the whole late brother story,” Gecko whispered.  
“I’m a business man who started out in corporate law and ended up in the political circus. I wouldn’t be here without my darling wife and our two sons. My wife, Hailey, is here with me tonight but unfortunately our sons, Joseph and Blake had to finish some homework for school. My sons are such dedicated students. Speaking of dedicated students, it’s my pleasure to have six high school interns from Stark Industries here tonight. I will admit that I was surprised when Tony Stark approached me, asking if I had six spare seats for a few on his interns to attend tonight, but I’m glad that these young people have showed up. It goes to show that we really shouldn’t underestimate the young generation that these interns are in. It’s thanks to these young folks and their peers for our changing political landscape. It also reminds us what we should really be focusing on – providing the best environment we can for the future generations that arrive after we leave. However, we cannot have a bright future for the generations to come if we do not make today easier. In this wonderful city so many of the young adults in our communities are struggling. Although rates of those out of work have dropped, most of the work young adults is only part time work. One of my main goals that I would hope to accomplish as your mayor is to create a group dedicated to finding ways of providing more full-time work that pays a living wage for not just young people, but for everyone…”

Hamilton continued to talk about the policies he hoped to implement as mayor. He mentioned everything from gun reform to immigration. Had I not known who Hamilton really was and I was actually able to vote, I would probably vote for Hamilton. He knew exactly what the younger generations wanted and how to appease them in order to gain their votes. Being sabotaged at every turn would probably make the young voters more sympathic towards Hamilton. I voiced my concerns to my team.  
“I mean you’re not wrong Abigail,” Spider Man said, “Full time work with a living wage sounds really good,”  
“And so does gun reform,” Fe agreed  
“Hamilton has done his research,” Gecko said, “But that doesn’t matter, we have to take him down,” We all stopped our talk about the mission when Hamilton walked towards us.  
“Thank you all for coming tonight,” He said, “It means a lot to me to see such young people getting involved in politics,”  
“Thank you, Mr Hamilton,” Gecko said, “It was a pleasure to be here tonight,”  
“Oh no, the pleasure is all mine,” Hamilton said, “When I was looking at the names Tony Stark gave me, I noticed that a Abigail Jackson was among them. That wouldn’t happen to be the Abigail Jackson whose family was in the apartment building collapse a few weeks would it?”  
“Ah… yes. My family was in the apartment building collapse,” I said.  
“You have my full condolences Miss Jackson. How is the custody battle going? – I’m assuming there is one,”  
“There was, but it’s sorted now,” I said, “And thank you for the condolences,”  
“We really should talk at a later time Miss Jackson. I would like your opinion on a few things surrounding New York City’s position as the mostly highly attacked city by villains and the influence of the Avengers has had,”  
“I’d gladly like to talk about this at a later time Mr Hamilton,” I said, taking my phone out of my clutch. I turned it on to check the time.  
“Oh, would you look at the time,” I said, “Megan, we’ve got to get going if we’re to get back to your place on time. I’m so sorry to cut our time short Mr Hamilton, but Megan and I have to get going. It was very nice to be able to hear your story and your plans,”  
“That is okay Miss Jackson. Have a safe journey home,” Hamilton said, “I’ll probably won’t have time to see you all again tonight, I wish you all the best,” He walked away from the group.  
“Meet on the roof of Midtown tomorrow at 3. Bring some food. We’ll debrief there,” I whispered to my team.  
“See you guys later,” Gecko said. Together we both walked out of the hall.

“Have you given any thought to my idea Megan?” I asked as the uber pulled up to my apartment building.  
“I said I’ll think about it. I’ll let you know when I come up with a definitive answer,” Megan replied  
“Good night Abigail, I’ll see you tomorrow,”  
“Good night Megan,” I said. The car stopped, and I got out of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and some kudos. I appreciate any and all feedback. :)


	11. Chapter 11

At 3 in the afternoon, I meet with my team on the roof of my school. We had a lot to discuss – starting with our no longer fully secret identities. Like the last time I had meet with Spider Man and Fe on rooftop, they had brought cupcakes and ice cream. I had brought a caramel slice from the store on the way to Midtown. Red Bolt was fourth to show up. She had brought a bottle of coke and some plastic cups. Ligero turned up not long after Red Bolt. In her hands she carried a covered bowl of cherries. The five of us waited for Gecko to turn up. When Gecko finally did, ten minutes after Ligero, Red Bolt tore into her.  
“What the hell Megan! Is this why you disappeared for a month literally a month after you managed to convince your parents to let you come to school?”  
“I’m sorry Darcey,” Gecko said, “Maybe we should start eating? Let everyone have their turn to speak?”  
“That’s a good idea Gecko,” I said, sitting down on the roof “Let’s all just sit down in a circle eat some food, drink some coke and talk. I don’t want my team to fall apart just because we all actually knew each other behind the mask without knowing,” Fe sat next to me on my left while Spider Man sat on my right. Ligero took a seat next to Fe while Gecko sat next to Spider Man. Red Bolt huffed as she reluctantly sat down. Red Bolt opened the bottle of coke and poured everyone as glass. Ligero uncovered her bowl of cherries while Spider Man opened his ice cream. I opened the caramel slice packet while Fe took her cupcakes out of their container. Gecko had forgotten to bring anything, but she helped divide everything into equal portions.  
“Who wants to go first?” I asked, “I think we should formally introduce ourselves, talk a bit about why or how we became heroes and maybe include one random fact about ourselves,” No one said anything. They avoided my eye contact and found a renewed interest in their food.  
“How about you Red Bolt?” I said, “Tell us your story,”. Red Bolt sighed…

“My name is Darcey Stephens. I live mostly with my older brother, Hayden, and my dad when he’s home from deployment. I never knew my mother. I’ve only just moved to New York but I’m liking it so far. We move around a lot due to Dad’s job. He’s a marine. So, Hayden is my primary caregiver. I got my powers because of my genetics. My mum wasn’t entirely human. She’s what some people call an inhuman. When Inhumans are exposed to a thing called the terigen mist, they unlock some cool abilities. Mum left two canisters of the stuff for Hayden and me with instructions for our dad to give us the choice when we turned 17 and to explain our ancestry as well. Hayden told me that when he turned 17, he chose not to. He was 21 when he opened a canister. He has lightning-based powers – anything from creating a small electrical charge for a phone to thunderstorm that goes on for days. I didn’t get a choice. I can be rather clumsy. I was holding the unopened canister when I accidently dropped it. It shattered, releasing the mist. It took me three days to recover. When I woke up, Hayden told me everything. It was… hard learning about Mum. She was someone I never really knew. With Hayden’s help I discovered what I could do – I essentially run super-fast. I also seem to create a small bit of electricity but not as much as Hayden can. Megan was the one who helped me get into the hero business. We meet online – they’re the easiest friendships to maintain for me and when we finally meet in person, she caught me in the act of uncontrollable super speed. She told me that she knew someone who could help. Two days later I’m meeting Wanda Maximoff at a café talking about how she could help me control my powers. I wanted to become a hero and there’s no better way to learn control when there’s someone else on the line,”

“So… you two already knew who each other were?” Spider Man said, pointing at Red Bolt and Gecko.  
“Well I think Megan knew about me, but I didn’t know about her, that’s for sure,”  
“I had a good reason for you to not know,” Gecko said, “Or at least it is to me,”  
“Well I’d like to hear it,” Red Bolt said. Gecko took a deep breath in…

“For those who don’t know who I am, I’m Megan Greenwood and my parents were a part of SHIELD – just regular ones, not the ones under HYDRA. I grew up hearing stories about how Mum saved the world while Dad found the information she needed to do it. I also grew up learning the same skills. Gymnastics, some ballet lessons, all those activities that are stereotypically attended by children being trained as the perfect spy by their secret agent parents. I too joined SHIELD. Natasha Romanoff is a friend of my mother’s, so she sponsored me during the training I received. I had level 2 clearance by the time SHIELD fell. Natasha decided that my potential shouldn’t be wasted so she asked me if I’d like to become her protegee. I agreed since I wasn’t ready to give up being a spy. Whatever Natasha taught me, she made sure that I was 100% sure of what I was doing. I suppose it had something to do with me not being forced, or feeling like I was, into something that would change my life forever. One of the greatest things I learnt was to let no one know who I was. It helped that I was home-schooled for most of my life – I didn’t really have anyone to lie to and any online friends I had, like Darcey, were never truly going to see me action so I didn’t really bother telling them the truth. When I started school, I found it hard to keep my secret a secret – but I had to. Not just for me, but for Darcey and everyone else who might get caught in the crosshairs. Maybe I shouldn’t have from Darcey, but I did it anyway. Forgive me Darcey, I should have told you as soon as you meet Wanda,”

“You don’t have to be sorry for that,” Red Bolt said, “I overreacted about this whole thing. I mean I never outright told you I was Red Bolt, but I figured you knew anyway,”  
“Thanks, Darce,” Gecko smiled, “Your turn Spider Man,”  
“I’m going to – just let me eat this slice,” Spider Man quickly scoffed the piece of slice he was holding before starting his story.

“Simply put, I got bitten by a radioactive spider. I used to wear glasses in case you didn’t know. There’s so much power that I was given – I’m super strong, my reflexes are just as super due to this thing I like to call my Spidey Sense which gives me ample warning that something’s about to happen. My other senses were ramped up too. There was an… accident and that’s why I decided to be a hero. Mr Stark recruited me and gave me this suit. It’s pretty sweet. I already knew who Fe is since we often work together, and I knew Slingshot’s identity after we got Galvon. I don’t know who was more surprised that Peter Parker was Spider Man, my Aunt May or Slingshot. Probably Aunt May. She worries about me a lot and she’s been through a lot. Sometimes I think about stopping if only to stop her from worrying too much but then I remember that with great power comes great responsibility. I won’t give up Spider Man for much,”

Spider Man reach for another slice. Gecko noticed this and quickly slapped his hand.  
“You’ve had your share,”  
“It’s okay Gecko – I’m not going to have any more. He can have my pieces,” I say, “I guess I’m up,”  
“Hurry up,” Fe said, “I want to be able to have my say before I have to go home. We have homework due tomorrow,”

“My story is simple – a 12-year-old named Abigail Jackson killed three aliens, put herself on SHIELD’s radar and then got recruited by SHIELD. Gecko would never admit it, but I was actually in the class of trainees above her. My class all had level 3 clearance when SHIELD fell. I trained with Clint after I technically lost my job. I now live with him since my family were killed in the apartment building collapse. Yes, you’re thinking of the one that Blake and Joseph set and you’re absolutely right, this case is extremely personal to me. I need to bring some justice to not just my family but my neighbours and everyone else who died in the collapse. I know I can do it – just as much as I know that I can shoot and not miss almost every target I make. Whether it be a crossbow bolt or one of my slingshot shots I’ve trained countless hours with my weapons of choice to make the perfect shot. Stopping Hayes, Joseph and Blake will require a perfect shot. I will make that perfect shot and meet my bullseye,”

“Wonderful archery analogies there Abigail,” Red Bolt said, rolling her eyes “It’s almost as if we didn’t know you were an archer,”  
“Actually, the correct term for what Abs does is marksman. She doesn’t actually use a bow and arrow like Hawkeye does,” Fe corrected Red Bolt.  
“Thanks, Stassia for the correction. But I can use a bow and arrow when I need to. Crossbows and Slingshots are just smaller and easier for me to use,”  
“Oh, I know you can, but marksman just sounds better,”  
“Don’t you have homework to get to?” I asked, “Some of us want to hear who you are before you go,”

“My family has always been close to the Starks. My grandfather worked for Howard. My dad is Tony’s unofficial godfather and for some time Tony was being considered as my own godfather. I guess it was because of his old playboy ways that he didn’t become my godfather. Either way Tony became an important part of my life. I was inspired by him to become who I am today. When Tony became Iron Man, I started designing my own suit. By the time I was 15, the first full suit was completed, and I was ready to fight crime. Originally the media called me Iron Maiden, but Tony helped me rebrand myself as Fe. It’s like one of our inside jokes that Tony and I had. I’ll admit that when Tony first took Peter under his wing, I got a little bit jealous. Everyone saw Spider Man as Tony’s protegee. And he really was. But Spider Man saved my life a few times and I realised that Peter wasn’t that bad. We spent some time talking to each other and found we have a lot in common. We started working together as Fe and Spider Man and the rest is history. Pete and I are essentially siblings now no matter how much the media believes that Fe and Spider Man are going out just because we’re always hanging out,”

“Know what that’s like,” Red Bolt said, “It’s why I asked Dad if we could stop living on the bases he would work on. Most of the girls would tease me about all the boys I would hang around. They always thought I was dating one or more of my friends,”  
“Glad to see somethings never change in the world,” I say. I turn to look at Ligero. Noticing my glance, Ligero quickly moved her body to hide the majority of herself behind Fe.  
“Want to tell us anything about yourself Ligero?” I asked.  
“You don’t have to tell us much. Some of us know your name, but not the person. It would be nice if we knew the real you,” Fe said almost inaudibly. Ligero nodded a little bit.  
“My name is Alyssa Anderson. I don’t have much to say because I don’t have much experience in life. It nice to hear your stories. Vision was helping me control my powers when he ran into some trouble on one of his solo missions. I was the only who could help him. I enjoyed helping him and he offered me a chance to become more than what I had been made into. I guess I wanted a chance to do that. I might have made a bad choice considering the fact I don’t like being the centre of attention. But maybe being Ligero can help me more than I can help myself,” Ligero’s voice was soft and quiet.  
“Maybe we can all help each other to become something more,” Fe said, “I’d gladly help you become more Alyssa,”  
“Thanks Stassia,” Ligero said, showing a little smile.  
“You know what I’ve just realised?” I said, “We’re like the original six avengers. I’m Hawkeye while Gecko and Fe are Black Widow and Iron Man for obvious reasons. Spider Man is like Captain America – a nobody turned somebody,”  
“Hey!” Spider Man said.  
“Come on Peter, I’ve known you since elementary. You were a nobody before you got bitten and we both know it,” I say, laughing a little, “Then we have Red Bolt as Thor. Two alien like races in a world that they don’t really understand. And finally, we have Ligero as the Hulk. Misunderstood but deep down the greatest hero of them all despite all their problems,”  
“We should come up with a team name,” Fe suggested.  
“Can we do this later?” Red Bolt asked, “I need to get home to make dinner since my brother is on the late shift,”  
“Yeah, sure,” I said, “I’ll see you all at school tomorrow,”  
“I should get going too. Homework,” Fe said, “See ya tomorrow,” One by one, my team left Midtown’s rooftop. All expect Gecko.  
“I’m coming back tomorrow to school,” Gecko said, “I can’t wait to see the look on Blake’s face when he sees me,”  
“I knew I could count on you Gecko. Now get home. I’ll clean up our mess,”  
“Are you sure Abigail? I could stay and help,”  
“Go Gecko. I need some alone time anyway,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and some kudos. I appreciate any and all feedback. :)


	12. Chapter 12

Monday was an interesting day. It started normal enough. Breakfast was toast on the run. Clint was still asleep when I was ready for school, so I caught the bus to the train station and took a train to the Midtown stop. Getting off the train and going down to the ground level, I meet up with Freya who had gotten off a train coming from the other direction. Together we walked to the school where Harriet almost ran into us. Lara was a few steps behind her.  
“Morning Abigail! Morning Freya!” Harriet said.  
“What’s got Harriet so excited?” I asked.  
“Do you even go to this school?” Harriet asked.  
“Yes,”  
“The homecoming dance was announced over the weekend,” Lara explained, “Harriet is always excited about these things,”  
“How come I never heard about that?” I asked, “I probably should know that,”  
“It was on FaceBook,” Lara frowned.  
“I’m on Facebook,”  
“You’re literally in the group chat for the organising committee,” Lara continued.  
“There’s a group chat? Since when?”  
“We signed up for it at the beginning of the semester Abigail, don’t you remember?” Freya asked  
“Check your phone Abs, it must have the notifications about it,” Harriet suggested. I took out my phone from my pocket. I turned it on. Sure enough there was about 200 messages from the committee group chat alone.  
“I must have forgotten to look at my phone,” I shrugged at my weak excuse.  
“Let me guess,” Lara said, “You got busy at your internship,”  
“Yeah I did,”  
“It’s almost as if your internship stops you from doing anything fun. I mean even Peter Parker is different since he got his own internship. He quit nearly everything,”  
“Well it’s important,” I said, “I got to go to the opening of a mayoral campaign on Saturday,”  
“You can’t even vote yet,” Harriet said.  
“So? It’s interesting and I can vote before any of you guys so I should start forming opinions now before I’m legible so I don’t freeze when it comes to the voting booth,” I said, “Any who… we should really get into the school building, class does start in about ten minutes,”  
“Who are you and what have you done with Abigail?” Lara laughed.

I had passed Megan in the halls on my way to second period World History, so I knew she had been telling the truth on the rooftop. It wasn’t until lunch that the whole school knew she was back. Coming out of fourth period Spanish, I saw Megan and Blake cross each other’s paths in one of the larger crossroads in the school building.  
“What are you doing here?” I heard Blake ask Megan. I leaned against the wall to watch what happened next.  
“I could ask you the same thing Blake,” Megan said.  
“Well I asked first Megan,”  
“Well I go to school here of course,”  
“You go to school over in England. What are you really doing here?”  
“Did I forget to tell you?” Megan asked, “I was only attending King’s Cross because my parents were doing business in London and they didn’t want me to be left alone in New York for three months. We got back a few days ago”  
“I guess you did forget,”  
“Now explain why you left out of the blue without even a text to say where you were going or why you broke up with me and suddenly go to the school I attend in New York?”  
“My dad decided to move back home and run for mayor. You know how it is Megan,”  
“The moving part, maybe. But everything else? I don’t think I know how it is,” Noticing that Megan and Blake’s argument may turn physical at any moment, I decided to step in.  
“Hey guys, break it up,” I said, walking towards Megan and Blake, “I don’t think most of us want to hear about your break up,”  
“No. I want the whole school to hear why Blake Hamilton broke up with the person he called the love of his life with a single text, no explanation and then left out of the blue,” Megan said, glaring at Blake. I stepped between the two to act as a barrier.  
“You know exactly why I left you, you lying bitch!” Blake said, stepping towards Megan. I pushed Blake away from her. Blake stumbled back.  
“Keep away from her Blake,” I said, beginning to glare at him myself.  
“Get away from my brother,” Out of no where Joey came running towards us.  
“Maybe we should all go our separate ways,” I suggested, “I don’t want to start a fight,”  
“You started the fight when you pushed my brother,”  
“And I wouldn’t have pushed your brother if he didn’t attempt to hurt Megan,” Out of nowhere, Joey threw a punch at me. His fist hit my stomach. I staggered backwards a bit as the air left me.  
“You four in my office! Now!” I looked up to see the Vice Principal walking towards us. Blake and Joey glared daggers at Megan and me.

Megan and I sat in plastic chairs in the hallway outside the VP’s hallway. Blake and Joey sat across from us, looking annoyed with where their actions had landed them. VP Brice had taken us to his office when he stopped a proper fight from breaking out. He first made sure that I was alright, and I told him that I had just been winded and would be okay once I got my breath back. After that he tore into Blake, Joey and Megan for this disturbance that they had caused. Joey and Blake tried to make it look like that Megan was to blame for the disturbance entirely while Megan accepted her part in the disturbance and wanted Joey and Blake to own up for their part. VP Brice did make some comments about how I had been part of the disturbance, but it was so that I could stop it. In the end he told me that I should go home to recover while he gave Megan and Blake both detention for a week. Joey got the worse punishment – he was suspended for the rest of the week. Then VP Brice had told us to wait in the hallway while he called our parents and guardians. The other three were also going home for the rest of the day.  
“You two are so going to regret this,” Joey snarled, finally breaking the silence. I knew Megan was going to say something, so I directed her attention to me.  
“So, Megan, what’s London like? I’ve never been,” I asked.  
“It’s actually a wonderful place,” Megan said, realising what I was doing, “Rainy, but wonderful. You should really visit it some time. I’ve got so many awesome photos of the site seeing trips I took on my weekends,”  
“You’re on Instagram, right?” I asked. Megan nodded.  
“I’ll upload some photos when I get home if my parents don’t confiscate my phone,” She told me.  
“You should add me Megan. I’m A underscore J underscore Jackson.”  
“Sounds like a good idea Abigail. What sort of photos do you post?”  
“Just some random photos of things like the skyline at night and flowers,”  
“I will have a look,” Successfully cutting off Blake and Joey’s attempts to start a second fight, we all fell into an unsettled silence. We waited ten minutes like this before Hamilton showed up. The mayoral candidate looked very angry. He didn’t look at us as he passed us on the way to VP Brice’s office. We waited another five minutes; Blake and Joey exchanging nervous glances to each other every now and again. Hamilton came out of the office.  
“Joey, Blake with me,” He said, angryily “Blake, go to the car. It’s parked at the front of the school,”  
“Yes Dad,” Blake said, making his exit quickly.  
“Now Joey, I believe you have something to say to Miss Jackson,”  
“Oh, come on Dad, Brice already made me do this,” Joey said.  
“That’s Mr Brice to you Joey. Now apologise,” Joey huffed in annoyance before turning to me.  
“I’m sorry that I assaulted you Abigail,”  
“Thank you for your apology Joey,” I said.  
“Good boy now go wait in the car with your brother,”  
“Yes Dad,” Joey started walking in the same direction that Blake had. Hamilton turned to me.  
“I’m truly sorry for my sons’ behaviour towards you Miss Jackson,” He said, “And towards you Miss Greenwood. I hope you’ll be able to forgive them,”  
“Forgive, maybe but forget? No way,” Megan whispered.  
“It was just a misunderstanding Mr Hamilton that got out of hand. I’m sure that at a later date Blake and Joey will be able to come to peace with both myself and Megan,”  
“Of course,” Mr Hamilton said, checking his watch, “I must excuse myself now. I have a campaign to run,”  
“Of course, Mr Hamilton, have a good day,” I said. Hamilton smiled and walked away.  
“Since when have you been so diplomatic Abigail? This is what? The third time? Maybe fourth time you’ve come face to face with the mastermind and his minions behind your family’s deaths and you present yourself in a way that indicates that you know nothing of it,” Megan asked.  
“Because I have to. Someone has to keep you lot in line and someone has to make sure that we get Hamilton, Blake and Joseph so that they can face justice and that someone cannot do that if everyone knows exactly what’s going through their mind,”  
“Okay, if you say so,”  
“And you’re wrong by the way,”  
“How so?”  
“I have presented myself in way that may indicate that I know Joseph is behind something,”  
“Oh,”  
“Yeah,” Megan and I waited in silence for the duration of Megan’s wait for her parents. Her parents came and started fussing over her. Mrs Greenwood gave me a once over before she left with her husband and daughter. A few minutes later Clint turned up to pick me up.  
“What sort of trouble did you get yourself into this time?”  
“None – I got punched and got winded because of it. VP Brice wants me to go home as with the others involved. Making sure that nothing happens again between the four of us. For today anyway,” Clint laughed.  
“I assume you’ll be doing some homework instead,”  
“Nah – apparently I signed up for the organising committee for the homecoming dance at the beginning of the semester,”

I spent my afternoon off reading through the messages of the organising committee group chat. There were plenty ideas of the theme being thrown around as well as catering, decoration and photographers but no one was willing to definitively make a decision. So, I decided to be that person. It was a stupid idea – I already had a team to lead and I really didn’t have the time to do this. But I did it anyway. I reread the messages and made notes. It seemed that the two most popular themes for the dance were Great Gatsby and A Night Under the Stars. Even with my own vote in the mix, there was an even split. I made a note about making a school wide survey to make sure everyone got a say. The next problem was who was going to organise what. Looking through the list of people in the group chat gave me ideas on how to make the organisation easier. I noticed that one of the few males on the committee was Jordan Mason whose father had a catering business. I made a note of this and added two others on the committee to make a team with Jordan for catering. One of the many girls had a model as a mother who may know a photographer willing to do a school homecoming while two others also had connections to professionals. I decided to add a fourth to their small group who didn’t have any connections so that we got the cheapest option. I made small groups for every small part of the organisation of the dance so that eventually 17 of the 18 members had one job to focus on. The only person who didn’t was me. I then made the decision that my job would to be make sure that everyone did their job. I created a survey for the theme before sending a long message to the group chat explaining my ideas and plan for the dance. Freya was the first to respond.  
\- This is why we signed you up Abs. You always know how to make a team work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and some kudos. I appreciate any and all feedback. :)


	13. Chapter 13

Hamilton looked out of his 49th story apartment window while holding his glass of whiskey. He was mulling over everything that had happened since Galvon had been captured by the Avengers with the help of Slingshot, Spider Man and Fe. Hamilton had sent his son, Joseph, and Galvon’s son Blake to the States early to detonate a bomb in an apartment building. Doing the job correctly, the building collapsed. The collapse, of course, was planned to hit the young hero known as Slingshot in a way that a physical hit would never could. From all the intel that Blake had gathered from his ex-girlfriend and the intel from other members of Hamilton’s spy network, Hamilton had learnt that if his plan was to succeed then he had to get rid of the young heroes. And to do that, Hamilton had to make sure that they never assembled the way that the Avengers did – by taking the only possible choice for a leader out.

Out of the six young heroes that lived and worked in New York, there were three possible candidates; Fe, Spider Man and Slingshot. From those three candidates, only Slingshot was a possible leader. Fe was far to personable and friendly while Spider Man was ever the optimistic. Slingshot, not only able to see reason and make the hard decisions while still being friendly, was the only one who could make the rest of the young heroes join forces. Only she could fix the disagreement that Red Bolt and Gecko would have when they found out who each other were. Only she could help Gecko snap out of her slump of heart broken betrayal and guilt. Only she could make sure Ligero had a voice. Only she could keep the heroes on track and not let them get distracted. Hamilton assumed it was because of her training at SHIELD that her the best choice. Hamilton had also assumed that killing Abigail Jackson’s family while letting her live would break her. But Hamilton remembered what assuming did when Slingshot’s family had died – it made an ass out of you and me. For a week it seemed that it was going the way Hamilton planned. Abigail had only left the apartment a total of five times. Slingshot hadn’t made an appearance since the media had caught her and Fe leaving the building collapse. Then Slingshot had been seen with Fe and Spiderman. Hamilton had sent one of his spies to the location of their meeting and all that the spy found was crumbs and melted ice cream. The very next day, Abigail returned to school. Hamilton’s next hope was that the court case for Abigail’s custody would take forever. It didn’t. Clint Barton had gotten custody and Abigail’s grandparents were heading back home to Dallas. So, to spite the young hero, Hamilton had instructed his son to switch into Abigail’s French class and told him to sit in her seat and smirk should she ever made eye contact with him. Joseph had told him that Abigail essentially had a panic attack and had to be taken to one of the counsellor’s offices.

The apartment collapse was also used to take out Gecko. Gecko had been investigating Blake as part of the Avenger’s assignment to bring down John Galvon. Gecko, who wasn’t made to be a leader, would play a vital role in taking Hamilton’s empire down should she ever speak. Hamilton knew that Megan Greenwood, or Megan Faye as her enrolment at King’s Cross said, had truly fallen in love with Blake. By being unable to stop the bomb that Blake had placed, it would crush Gecko in a way similar to the hit the bomb would make to Slingshot. Hamilton saw Gecko’s uninvolvement in hero activities and her disappearance from school as a sure sign that he had crushed her better than he had crushed Abigail. Then he read the list of interns Tony Stark wanted to attend his campaign opening. Hamilton had suspected that the Avengers already knew who he was, and this confirmed his suspicion. All six of the interns were the young heroes who helped New York. So, Hamilton decided the night of his campaign opener to change his plan – make friends with the young heroes. More specifically Abigail Jackson. The death of her family in the apartment collapse would be a great platform politically and having a private meeting with her at some point in the campaign would show voters that he was the kind, caring, compassionate man that he claimed to be.

That image was nearly ruined with Megan Greenwood’s return to Midtown. She had called Blake out on his disappearance and unexplainable break up in front of the entire school. She would have probably exposed herself as Gecko as well as Hamilton’s own plans had Abigail not been there. Acting like she didn’t know Megan that well nor knowing Blake, Abigail gave the impression that she was just a concerned student trying to stop a cat fight. Abigail’s plan probably would have worked had Joseph not over reacted. Joseph, despite knowing that Blake was being blackmailed and mind controlled six ways to Sunday, truly took to the role of brother like a duck to water. Hamilton probably could see why – Joseph’s actual brother had been part of a murder-suicide that Joseph’s mother, and Hamilton’s wife, had enacted when Joseph was five years old and his brother was two. Joseph’s latent protectiveness had come through when he had seen Abigail push Blake away from Megan. The protectiveness had turned rage which had turned physical. Joseph ended up getting suspended for two days. As far as Midtown was concerned, that would be Joseph’s only punishment.

There was a knock on Hamilton’s door which pulled him from his thoughts.  
“Come on in,” Hamilton said, turning away from the window and towards the door. The door opened and in stepped Hailey in her maid’s uniform. While Hailey’s primary job was to be the maid, Hamilton also used Hailey as his fake wife and mother of his two sons for the campaign. Hailey didn’t seem to mind this as it meant that she got some extra bonuses.  
“Sorry Mr Hamilton,” Hailey said, “I’ve just come to let you know that I’m knocking off for the night,”  
“Of course, Hailey. Thank you for your service today. I’ll be up in a few,” Hamilton said, “Could you do me one last favour?”  
“Of course, Mr Hamilton, anything for you,”  
“On your way up to the room, do you mind sending Joseph down. I need to talk to him before I go to bed,”  
“I will do this for you Mr Hamilton,” Hailey winked at Hamilton before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

Ten minutes later Hamilton was sitting behind his desk going over all the papers his aide had delivered to him earlier in the evening. There was a second knock at his door.  
“Come in,” Hamilton said. The door opened, and Joseph walked meekly through.  
“You wanted to see me Father?” Joseph asked almost as meekly as his walk.  
“What have I told you about being meek Joseph? You could be the heir of an empire. And heirs do not need to be meek,”  
“Yes Father, sorry Father,”  
“Now I need to talk to you about what happened at your school today,”  
“Of course, Father,”  
“Your emotional outburst which ended with getting the target designated Slingshot hurt. It also probably let her know along with the rest of her team that there is a weak point in my plan. We cannot let them stop me from bringing my empire into the light,” Hamilton said, “And for that you need to be punished. Gregory is in the city and I’m sure that he won’t mind having you stay with him for a day,”  
“Please father, not The Doctor,” Joseph pleaded.  
“Do not beg boy! Or I’ll make it two days,”  
“Sorry Father,”  
“Now go. I’ll have Hailey drop you off tomorrow morning,”  
“Thank you, Father for your time,” Joseph said before turning around and walking out of the door. Joseph closed the door behind him. Hamilton opened his top desk draw. Amongst the papers and pens was an old nokia phone. The only number that the phone had programmed was for one Gregory Smidt who was more commonly known as The Doctor to the underground community and Him to his patients. Everyone in Gregory’s circles knew of the young mutant girl he had kidnapped and experimented on for five years. It was considered to be his greatest work. Not only had he completely broken the girl, he had exploited her mutant genes to produce her full potential. Once achieving his goals, he’d encoded a secret code word into her head and let her go with many of his people becoming key parts in the girl’s free life. Only Hamilton knew the truth of who the girl was. After all, it was Hamilton who had brought Gregory’s attention to her. Seven years earlier, a random fortune teller had told him about the girl called Alyssa Anderson who would become the Spanish light and how the girl would be a part of team to bring him down. Had Hamilton not told Gregory about her maybe Ligero wouldn’t exist and be the threat to him she was. Which is why the secret code existed. Maybe it would be time to use it soon. Hamilton picked up the old phone and called Gregory.  
“Senor Hayes,” Gregory answered, “What can I do for you on this fine evening?”  
“My son has gotten himself suspended and I have a lot of responsibilities to deal with tomorrow, so I need someone to babysit him,”  
“I would be more than delighted to babysit young Joseph. I suppose you will prop him off and pick him up,”  
“I will,”  
“Okay then. I’ll see him tomorrow,”  
“Thank you, Gregory,”  
“No problem Senor Hayes,”

Joseph and Blake shared a room. Mainly because they were so used to sharing a room at King’s Cross that it seemed too idiotic for them not to share in New York. Their joint bedroom had a lot of secrets. Like how heartbroken Blake was over Megan. Like how Joseph would cry himself to sleep whenever his father had a “heart-to-heart” with him or his nightmares woke him up. It is said that the best way to trust someone is to see them at their lowest. Blake and Joseph had seen each other at their lowest points and it had forged an unbreakable bond of trust between the two; one that couldn’t even be broken by brainwashing. When Joseph returned to the room after his talk with Hamilton, Blake saw the brokenness that Joseph always hid.  
“How did it go?” Blake asked.  
“He’s sending me to Gregory tomorrow,”  
“Are you serious? He’s just going to give you to The Doctor because you got suspended,” Joseph nodded.  
“My father can do what he pleases. He’s the emperor and his heir has to be moulded into the perfect, fearless warrior who is willing to never mess with his plans. I guess I’m just not there yet,”  
“Joseph, I’ve said this before and I’ll keep saying this as much I need to. Do not let your instinct to protect me override that of your need to stay on the right side of your father,” Blake said, “It can get you in trouble and you may end up having to spend more than one day with The Doctor. Even one day messes with your head – just look at Alyssa Anderson. She really should be dead after the five years of pure hell she spent with him. I would have given in well before she did,” The truth of their place in the world hung in the stony silence.  
“We should go to bed and stop talking about this. If my father catches us talking about this it would be seen as treason and the punishment for treason is more than just one day with Gregory,” Joseph said, pulling the covers of his bed down.  
“Good night Joseph,”  
“Good night Blake,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and some kudos. I appreciate any and all feedback. :)


	14. Chapter 14

My team’s first chance to start sabotaging Hamilton’s mayoral campaign came two weeks after his opening event that announced his run. Hamilton, to show that he was charitable, was hosting a charity auction to raise money to create two new water wells in Chad. Knowing this would be a good time to strike, I called my team on the holocube. Five people answered with Fe and Spider Man sharing a hologram.  
“I really like what he’s doing,” Fe said after I explained what was going on, “Chad is in need of clean water supplies and these wells would provide that water,” Everyone else agreed.  
“I’m not saying that we don’t get those water wells because believe me I really believe that we need to address the water crisis not just in Chad but in other places even among the United States,” I explained, “We just want to make sure that the night doesn’t run smoothly. I’m talking about spilling drinks over patrons, messing with the microphone and fumbles with the pieces being auctioned off. You know, the small things matter. It makes Hamilton look less prepared and foolish. Everyone knows that we need a mayor that can be organised and not make himself look foolish in public or in front of visiting politicians,”  
“I see what you’re trying to accomplish here,” Gecko said, “You know that Hamilton’s political ambitions are exactly what the young voters want and so he’ll be appealing to them. By making him look like a fool you’re sending a message that despite all the wonderful promises he makes he isn’t the one who will be able to make them a reality because he is a fool,”  
“Are you sure that your plan will work?” Red Bolt asked.  
“No,” I admitted, “Even with all the psychology we can use to our advantage to persuade the public Hamilton isn’t their man, no one can truly predict what is going to happen. We could probably get everyone against Hamilton if we blew things up and released all his wrong doings in the world,” Everyone looked at me in a way that suggested that was what they thought we would do. I sighed.  
“Did you guys really think I wanted to blow stuff up and collapse buildings just to stop Hamilton?”  
“I mean he did blow up your apartment,” Fe said  
“It does sound like something you would do Slingshot with all your explosive shots and crossbow bolts,” Gecko said  
“It would be fun,” Red Bolt admitted.  
“Oh, come on. We’re the Young Avengers we do not blow up buildings,”  
“So, what is your plan then Slingshot?” Spider Man asked  
“Well it goes like this. Ligero and Red Bolt are going to make things float and disappear. Their super speed and force manipulation will come extremely helpful for this particular mission. I want you two to keep your disappearing and smashing to a minimum. We want Hamilton to look clumsy. The less he suspects someone is behind it the better it is for us to do more sabotaging,” I explained, “The auction is also going to be streamed online. I want as much technical difficulties as possible. Fe and Gecko will in charge of that. I want funny typos in Hamilton’s teleprompters. I want cameras cutting out. I want Hamilton’s microphone to malfunction. Again, keep it minimal but make sure it’s harilous. No one will consider the court jester as the heir to the kingdom, will they?”  
“That leaves you and Spider Man. What you will you two do?” Gecko asked.  
“Spider Man?”  
“Yes Slingshot?”  
“How weak is your webbing?”  
“It’s very strong. Too strong for normal people to get out of,”  
“Can you make a batch of webbing that is quite weak? I want you to cover the doorways that Hamilton could enter into with it. You guys ever hear of the glad wrapping the door prank?” I got nods from everyone but Ligero. “It’s going to be like that but with the weak webbing. It will be funny watching Hamilton try to get it off as he walks through the door when he’s meant to look in control,”  
“Slingshot?” Ligero asked. When everyone turned to look at her, she looked down at the ground embarrassed.  
“Yes Ligero?”  
“Uh… I don’t get what you mean about the whole glad wrapping the door thing,” Ligero said softly “Could you explain it for me please?”  
“Of course. So, there’s this prank where you cover an entrance in glad wrap. Because glad wrap is see through you can’t tell that the entrance is covered in glad wrap so when you try to go through the entrance you get caught in the glad wrap. It’s a fun prank,” I explained to Ligero. Ligero nodded.  
“Thank you,”  
“No problem Ligero,” I smiled at Ligero.  
“You still haven’t explained what you’ll be doing,” Red Bolt said.  
“Compared to everyone else on this team, my skill set can’t help physically. I can’t hack any computer system you put me in front of nor do I know Spider Man’s formula, so I can’t be any help there. I also don’t have any powers that let me move things at super speed or by manipulation and I can’t cling to ceilings. This makes me essentially useless on the mission field this time around. However, one of my skills is sitting down and watching. I’m going to be overwatch for this mission. I’ll also provide ariel cover should things go wrong. Which I hope they don’t ‘cause I don’t want this to be over before it even began,”  
“Sounds fair,” Red Bolt said.  
“Glad to know that it does. I’ll be using a bow and arrow instead of my usual weapons because where I’ll be watching from is going to be a little bit out of my range,”  
“You can use a bow and arrow?” Spider Man asked, surprised “Isn’t that Hawkeye’s thing?”  
“If you literally give me a projectile weapon of any kind I’ll more than likely be able to hit any target you give me,”  
“Okay then… remind me not to get on your bad side when you have something in your hand,”  
“Smart move,”  
“Next question,” Fe said, “How are the rest of us getting in. Having Stark Interns is not going to help us in anyway. And I don’t think Tony could really keep pulling that card,”  
“Lucky for you I had Gecko whip up a few backstopped identities for you lot,”  
“And what would they be?”  
“Fe’s going in as herself, I know for a fact that the Smith’s have an instant invitation. They’re rich, white and liberal compared to the rest of the people in the circles. By sending their daughter in as a go between, it gives Fe cover to bring in her tablet or laptop as she could always say she is communicating with her family. Gecko’s going to be wearing prosthetics since she’s instantly recognisable to Hamilton and his family. She’ll be a daughter of a high rolling casino owner out of Atlantic City who is looking for some new items to put in his foyer. Red Bolt and Ligero will be acting as the twin sisters of a wealthy business man in Los Angles who is looking for a chance to expand his company to New York. Vision and Scarlet Witch will be attending with you guys. Let Vision and Scarlet Witch handle any and all transactions, your jobs – besides the moving objects thing – is play the part of a board teenager who has much better things to do than to sit in an auction while her parents discuss which pieces they should bid on. Ligero, I know that you don’t know Red Bolt and I also know that you’d prefer to work with Fe but for this I need you to trust me and Red Bolt enough to work with Red Bolt. I know I haven’t really given anything to make you trust either of us, but I can assure you I will make it up to you. Can you do this for me? For the mission?” Ligero nodded.  
“And again, you’ve left me out of the fun,” Spider Man said.  
“Well you don’t get a backed stopped identity because you’ll be crawling through the air vents,”  
“No,” Spider Man groaned.  
“Dude, your code name literally has the word spider in it. I think you can handle hanging out with your buddies in the air vents,” Spider Man sighed knowing that I was right and there was nothing he could do to change my mind or my plan.  
“She got you there Spidey,” Fe laughed. Spider Man elbowed Fe in her side.  
“Okay since it seems that I’ve answered everyone’s questions, I expect everyone to be in position fifteen minutes before the auction,”

I set up my holocube on a building across the road from one of New York’s many galleries for hire. It produced live camera feeds from inside the gallery as well as blue prints with pins for each member of my team that moved in time with their real-life movements. It also showed the website from which Hamilton would stream his auction from as well as the Twitter search page. If anything stupid happened to Hamilton or if he made a mistake, social media would be the first to hear about it. With one of my quivers of arrows slung over my back and my bow in my left hand, I paced a small square on the rooftop as I waited for everything to start. I was looking at my holocube when a call screen popped up. The caller id said it was Hawkeye. I accepted the call from him.  
“What I do for you Hawkeye?” I asked.  
“I’m just checking in. Wanted to see how you were doing on your first solo team mission,”  
“First off it’s not my first – the campaign opener was our first without any adult supervision. Secondly, Vision and Scarlet Witch are going to be there so its technically not a solo team mission and thirdly solo means one person while team means more than one person so solo team shouldn’t really be a thing since they’re two opposites. I prefer the term mission without supervision,”  
“Okay you got me there Slingshot,” Hawkeye admitted, “How are you?”  
“Nervous. I’m used to providing overwatch. I was literally trained to be overwatch. But this is one of the few times that I’m doing it from a distance. And I don’t like it. Sure, I know that I can shoot an arrow from here and I know it will hit its target but it’s not the same as providing cover in the same room if you get what you mean. It’s a lot harder to control the mission from out here,”  
“Understandable. It’s hard for you to let go of control; it’s no surprise to me that you organised your friends into the team you have. But as you said Slingshot, you’re trained for this. And they’re trained for their job. You guys will do fine,”  
“I know you’re right. But most of my team is just my teammates – I would only really say Spider Man and Fe are my friends,”  
“Everyone is your friend – you just don’t know it yet,” I rolled my eyes at Hawkeye’s cheesy statement.  
“As much as I would love to continue to talk to you Hawkeye, I’ve got to get back to my mission and lead my team. Gecko’s just arriving now,” I said, looking at the road below and spotting the limousine Gecko was using pull up to the gallery.  
“Okay Slingshot. Call me when you’re done,” Hawkeye cut his connection as I made my way to the holocube.  
“Okay Gecko this is Slingshot,”  
“Gecko receiving,”  
“Just letting you know that I have spotted your car pull up and…” I looked back over to the road and saw a blonde-haired women in a red dress step out “I can see you getting out of the limo from overwatch position,”  
“Copy that Slingshot. What’s the status of everyone else?”  
“Fe is already inside taking a look at what seems to be a fake Banksy. I recommend not bidding on that,” I told Gecko as I checked Fe on the live camera feed, “Ligero and Red Bolt will be coming shortly. I can get you an update on Spider Man if you want,”  
“Yeah sure, why not. See what the wall crawler is up to,”  
“Sure thing Gecko. Slingshot out for now,” I said, “Okay Spider Man this is Slingshot,”  
“Spider Man receiving,”  
“Just wanting to check in on your progress,”  
“I know you know what my progress is. You have the schematics to the building and tracking our locations with it,”  
“Humour me Spidey,”  
“Well for starters I haven’t seen any of my so-called buddies. And I’m starting to get sore arms. These air vents are exactly easy to navigate you know,”  
“Actually, I do know. I just knew that you would be better suited for this challenge than I was. You have spider strength and I do not,”  
“Now you tell me that,”  
“How else was I supposed to get you to do this?”  
“You are an evil person Slingshot; did you know that?”  
“I would have been an evil mastermind in another life. Now seriously, how far away are you from the objective? You have less than ten minutes to do so,”  
“I’ll get there in time Slingshot,” Spider Man assured me, “Have the guards done their final check?”  
“Not yet. They’re meant to do it after Red Bolt and Ligero arrive with Vision and Scarlet Witch,”  
“You’ll let me know when they arrive right?”  
“Of course, I will. I wouldn’t be a very good overwatch if I didn’t,” I replied, “I’m going to talk to the others. Slingshot out for now,” I took in a deep breath. It was important as overwatch to keep calm so that your team felt calm as well. I took a quick look at the holoscreen showing the streaming website. The count down clock read eight minutes. Taking another breath in, I turned my attention to Fe.  
“Okay Fe this is Slingshot,”  
“Fe receiving,”  
“Just letting you know that the Banksy you were looking at is probably a fake and that Spider Man is almost in position,”  
“Cool. How long until Red Bolt and Ligero turn up?”  
“Another two minutes. I should probably check on them. Do you think you can pass Spider Man’s news onto Gecko for me?”  
“Yeah sure. Fe out for now,”  
“Okay Ligero this is Slingshot,”  
“Ligero receiving,”  
“According to my location screen you and Red Bolt are less than two minutes away from the gallery. Actually…” I looked at the road, “I can see your car now,”  
“Okay,”  
“How are you feeling Ligero?”  
“I feel nervous. I feel super nervous,”  
“Do you need any help from me or will you be fine?”  
“I should be fine. But I want to talk to Fe. Maybe she could help,”  
“Of course, you can Ligero. I’ll switch to Red Bolt – go talk to Fe,”  
“Ligero out for now,”  
“Okay Slingshot this is Red Bolt,”  
“Slingshot receiving,”  
“My car door is opening now with Ligero getting out first. Vision and Scarlet Witch will get out after us,” I looked across to the gallery. I spotted a girl with auburn hair step out with help of the chauffer. She was quickly followed by another girl, this time with blonde hair.  
“I see you and Ligero Red Bolt. I’m watching Vision and Scarlet Witch get out now,”  
“Cool. Is everyone in position,”  
“They should be by now,”  
“Okay then. Red Bolt out for now,”

I, along with the millions of other people watching the live stream of the auction, laughed out loud when Hamilton walked through his entrance covered in spider webs. As the auction continued, those millions of people started to make memes and funny tweets about how unprepared for the auction Hamilton seemed to be. #Hamilton became a trending topic on Twitter as people either inside the building or watching the live stream shared pictures of floating objects, the cobwebs that Hamilton missed when he brushed his suit clean and photoshopped old meme formats to represent the unprofessionalism of the event. It seemed that our plan was working. The live stream ended at midnight at the conclusion of the auction, so I returned to watching the camera feeds and the road down below. I watched Fe get into her SUV driven by a chauffeur while Gecko, Ligero and Red Bolt got into their respective limos. Spider Man was waiting on the roof of the gallery. He couldn’t leave his position until the majority of the patrons left. I closed the holoscreens with the Twitter feed and live streaming site as well as the schematics now that Spider Man had left. I kept the cameras inside the gallery going to watch people leave.  
“Okay Slingshot, this is Spider Man,”  
“Slingshot receiving,”  
“How much longer do I have to wait for people to leave?”  
“Probably another five minutes. I suggest you make like you’re heading to where Stark Tower used to be. Or do you want me to give you a crime to go to?”  
“As much as I would like to go now, Aunt May wants me to come straight home,”  
“Okay then. I’m going to patch everyone in so that we can talk about what the reaction is to the auction,”  
“Sure thing,”  
“Okay everyone, this is Slingshot,”  
“Fe receiving,”  
“Ligero receiving,”  
“Red Bolt receiving,”  
“Gecko receiving,”  
“So, I’m just letting everyone know that we pulled it off. Social media is blowing up with memes and I’m sure that by tomorrow morning there will be a few articles detailing exactly how and where Hamilton went wrong,”  
“Are the memes any good?” Fe asked.  
“I think you should see them yourself – I mean I’m finding some of them quite funny others not so much,”  
“Oh well. I’ll check Tumblr when I get home,” Fe said.  
“Anything else you care to mention Slingshot?” Gecko asked.  
“At the moment. Not really. I just want to tell everyone that we did a good job here tonight. Especially Ligero. Thank you for trusting me. I know it was hard for you,”  
“Can I go yet?” Spider Man asked, skipping any sentimental connection that may have been formed between myself and Ligero. I check the cameras for Spider Man and saw that the majority of the people attending had left.  
“The majority of people have left the building Spider Man, you’re free to go home. I’ll see you all at school tomorrow. This is Slingshot signing out,” Everyone else signed out and the com channel went dark. I finished closing the holoscreens before securing the holocube to my belt. I brought out my hoverboard, activated it and flew home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and some kudos. I appreciate any and all feedback. :)


	15. Chapter 15

Tickets for the homecoming dance went on sale the next day. I helped Clara and Grace set up the ticket buying table before school. As we set up, we got talking about the dance.  
“I heard that Jonny asked Caitlin over Christmas break,” Grace said  
“Well I heard that Jonny asked Sabine at her New Year’s party,” Clara said.  
“Well whoever Jonny asked, there’s going to be some trouble there,” Grace said, “Are you going to ask anyone Clara?”  
“No. I’m going to wait for Scott to ask. But if he hasn’t asked by Friday I’ll ask,”  
“I’m sure he’ll ask if he knows what’s good for him,”  
“Is there anyone you hope will ask you?” Clara asked.  
“Brad in my accounting class. I mean it’s a long shot since I don’t even know if he likes me,”  
“A girl’s allowed to have hopes,” Clara then turned to me, “What about you Abigail?” Caught unaware, I looked up from where I was cellotaping ribbon around the table, shocked.  
“What about me?”  
“Are you going to go with anyone to the dance?” Grace asked.  
“Uh… I haven’t actually thought about it,” I admitted.  
“You’re not sure? Homecoming is in less than two months Abigail,” Clara said  
“I know. I’ve just had other things on my mind,”  
“You should really make your mind. We can’t have the chair person of the committee undecided,”  
“I’m not chair though. No one is,”  
“Well you’re the closest thing we have to one,” Grace pointed out, “You organised everything,”  
“If you say so Grace,” I said, “I’ll probably go alone. Too much to handle on the night without a date,”

“Did you hear?” Harriet asked as I walked out of my homeroom, “Caitlin bitchslapped Sabine outside the front of the school. They started to fight, and the principal had to pull Caitlin off Sabine,”  
“Let me guess, it was over Jonny,” I said, rolling my eyes.  
“How did you know?”  
“This is the first time in about two years I’ve been really early to school,”  
“Oh, right you were helping Grace and Clara of course you heard,”  
“Yep,”  
“It’s ridiculous how early some people to the dance. Like who knows what could change in three months,”  
“I agree with you there,”  
“So I was thinking that I set you up with a date for the dance,”  
“Wait what?”  
“I am going to set you up with a date,”  
“No,”  
“Yes,”  
“No,”  
“Come on Abs,” Harriet pleaded, “You should really go with a date,”  
“I don’t want to go with anyone but you guys Harriet,”  
“It’s because you’re still not over Sebastian isn’t it?”  
“Harriet…”  
“That stupid boy didn’t even say goodbye or break up with you. You know I never really liked him,”  
“Harriet.”  
“Sebastian was never good for you,”  
“Harriet!”  
“What?”  
“This isn’t about Seb,” I said, “Did you ever think that I just don’t want a date and that I’ll probably end up getting extremely busy at the dance because things can and will go wrong,” Harriet sighed.  
“I suppose. I won’t look for a date for you unless you tell me you want me to,”  
“Thanks Harriet. Have fun in Social Studies,”  
“Have fun in World History Abs,” Harriet smiled as she turned into her Social Studies class.

It was lunch time and I was waiting for all my friends to arrive at our spot when I saw an underclassman being followed by some of marching band. The marchers were playing a song that I recognised as Castle on the Hill by Ed Sheeran. Silently judging the boy for his choice of song, I watched as he walked over to a girl who was eating something while sitting on one of the benches. The boy stopped walking and got on one knee. From my position, I couldn’t see what was going on exactly, but I knew it was a promosal. I rolled my eyes as the girl excitedly got up and pulled the boy up into a hug.  
“You know it was about this time last year that you hoped that you would be the girl,” Lara said, sitting next to me. Freya chose to sit on my left while Stassia sat on Lara’s right. Harriet sat next to Freya. Each had different lunches.  
“Abs was getting excited about homecoming? I don’t believe it,” Stassia said, “She looks over it completely. Although that’s probably because she’s organising the organising,”  
“Well you better believe it,” Freya said, “All she could talk about was how she hoped her boyfriend would ask her out when he wasn’t around,”  
“Guys, can we please not bring up my ex?” I asked, “I rather not talk about Seb,”  
“See,” Harriet turned to Lara, “She still uses her nickname for him,”  
“Guys, Abigail has asked us not to talk about that idiot. We are going to respect her wishes,”  
“Oh, come on Freya – out of all us you liked Sebastian the least. And that’s saying something,” Harriet said.  
“But I still liked him,” Freya pointed out, “Any way, Abs how was English and your study?”  
“English was alright. I wish they’d hurry up and make a decision whether or not our teacher has left or not. It’s getting extremely annoying that we have a new teacher almost every week and we have finals in a little under three weeks and there’s the SATs after that so that’s slightly stressing me out. I just went over Spanish in study,” I said, thankful for the change in subjects.  
“Gosh that whole teacher debacle is crazy,” Stassia said, “I don’t know how they expect us to pass anything when we can’t get a straight forward teaching style. They filled that Chemistry teacher position almost instantly. And all the other teachers have left this year seem to have replacements up their sleeves,”  
“Yeah. I find that quite weird. Midtown may have a few teachers leave every year abruptdly but they always have a replacement the next week. Maybe something dark and sinister is going on,” Lara said.  
“Well whatever is the problem, I’m sure they’ll sort it out soon,” Freya said, “Now who hasn’t heard about Sabine, Caitlin and Jonny?”

“What’s going on?” Clint asked, taking a look at my fourth bad round of target practice that afternoon. We had gone to the archery range to do some basic training. I must have not realised how badly I had been affected by everything that had happened in the last few weeks. I also must have not realised how much it was on my mind. Usually I could hold a conversation with someone while noticing and then firing whatever weapon I had in my hand and the projectile would still make its target perfectly 98% of the time. Today was the exact opposite. Even with my conscious concentration on making my target, about 70% of my shots had missed and out of rough 30% I had hit the target with, most weren’t even close to the bullseye.  
“Just some stuff going on at school,” I said, putting down my bow, “Maybe the stress is getting to me. Do you know how hard it is to organise 50 odd teenagers and not get caught up in some drama you rather not get caught up in? Cause it’s not easy,”  
“Abigail,” Clint said, looking me dead in the eye, “Even I know its not stress that’s making you miss. Because I’ve seen you handle stress and it’s never affected your accuracy before,”  
“Well maybe it’s not the organising of the dance that’s making me miss but rather the dance itself,”  
“It’s the homecoming dance, right? Or is it prom?”  
“Have you been listening to me rant about the problems over dinner or not Clint?”  
“Not,” I rolled my eyes.  
“It’s the homecoming dance. Probably Midtown’s biggest social event outside of the academic prizegiving night,”  
“Right. I knew that. And you know what happened last year before the dance?”  
“You don’t need to remind me. I’ve had about two people remind already today. I’m sure someone will be bringing it up tomorrow as well. And the next day,”  
“Relationships are a tricky thing Abigail. Believe me. I’ve had my few shares of heart brakes,”  
“But he just disappeared out of the blue and ghosted Clint. I tried finding him for months and its almost as if he didn’t exist. You’re telling me you’ve experienced that?”  
“Maybe I haven’t shared that exact experience, but I know what it’s like to have someone break your heart in that way. Have I ever told you about Nat and me?”  
“Wait you and Nat were a thing?”  
“For a while we were,”  
“Damn. I thought I had the sob story of relationships,” Clint chuckled a little.  
“I think we can both claim that title Abs,” I smiled a little, “Now let’s see if our little heart to heart worked. We have another quiver to work through,”  
“Most bullseyes buys pizza?”  
“How about least bullseyes?”  
“Fine,”

I decided to call Laura Barton that evening. Sitting in my room, I brought out my laptop and used Skype to call her. I had messaged Laura on the way back from the archery range to ask if we could talk later. She instantly replied and gave me a time which suited her. Plugging in my headphones, I called Laura. Not long after I pressed call, Laura answered. She was sitting in her dining room area with her back to a wall of family pictures.  
“Hey Abigail, how are you?”  
“Hey Laura. I’m good thanks. How are you?”  
“You know how it is. A little bit of farm work mixed with uncooperative kids,” Laura replied.  
“Lila still doesn’t want to go to school?”  
“No, she’s actually loving it at the moment. It’s Cooper,” Laura said, “Now what did you want to talk about?”  
“I need some advice. The homecoming dance is coming up and there’s a lot of pressure on me. My friends signed me up for the organising committee and somehow, I’ve had about three people tell me that I’m the closest thing we have to a chairperson. But everyone thinks I should have a date to the ball when all I want to go with friends because I’ll probably end up trying to make sure nothing goes wrong,”  
“And your last relationship ended right before last year’s homecoming dance. Completely understandable,” Laura said, “There’s not much you’re going to be able to do about everyone nagging you about a date. There’s also not much advice I can give you other than just ignore everyone. You know your limits and if people don’t get that then it’s their fault and not yours,” In the left-hand corner of Laura’s screen I see the youngest Barton child come into view.  
“Mummy!” Laura turned and picked up Nathaniel.  
“Hey buddy,” I said. Nathaniel’s already wide smile got larger.  
“Abby! Abby! Abby!” He cried.  
“How are you Nate?” I asked.  
“Good,” He replied, “I made cake today!”  
“That sounds good. What type of cake?”  
“Chocolate!”  
“That’s the best type of cake,”  
“Maybe we could send you some?”  
“Not this time. Sorry buddy. Maybe your Dad and I could stop in during the weekend and you could bake us a cake then?”  
“Okay,” Nathaniel smiled.  
“Hey Bud, I think it’s your bed time,” Laura told Nathaniel, “Do you want to head upstairs and grab your pjs?” Nathaniel nodded. Laura lifted him off her lap and put him onto the floor. I watched as Nathaniel ran off towards the stairs.  
“Do you want chocolate or vanilla?” Laura asked.  
“I think Nate got me sold on chocolate cake,”  
“Okay. I’ll make sure there’s some for you and Clint when you visit on Sunday,”  
“Okay. Thanks Laura,”  
“No problem Abigail,” She said, “Pass my love onto Clint, will you?”  
“I will,” Laura disconnected the skype call from her end. I shut down my laptop and decided that I would have an early night. Putting my laptop on my desk, I got up and went to find Clint. Walking down the hallway, my implant vibrated. Knowing I was safe, I pressed it and my glasses appeared. It was a text message from Gecko. The homecoming dance date coincided with the night of the mayoral election.  
“Well that’s just great,” I muttered to myself.  
“What’s great?” Clint asked  
“The homecoming dance is the same night as the election,”  
“Oh,”  
“Yeah,”  
“What are you going to do about it?”  
“I really don’t know. I’ll get to it before the weekend though. Right now I’m going to sleep,”  
“Sleep sounds good,”  
“Oh, by the way, Nathaniel wants to make us a chocolate cake when we go visit them on Sunday and Laura gives you her love,”  
“Okay. I guess we’ll stay at the base Saturday night,”  
“Sounds good,”  
“Night Abs,”  
“Night Clint,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and some kudos. I appreciate any and all feedback. :)


	16. Chapter 16

“While this is just a friendly game of dodgeball, it should help us all improve our accuracy, agility and balance,” Captain America explained. All my team, and some Avengers, had come for a full day’s worth of training at the base. I’d spent my morning switching between Natasha for some more stealth training and Clint and Tony in the electronics lab to improve my slingshot shots and crossbow bolts and even come up with new ideas for new weapons. But the afternoon was all about teamwork and improving physical fitness with everyone else. One of the first of the exercises we were going to do was dodgeball. When everyone arrived, Cap had put everyone into teams. Unlike the dodgeball we played at school, there was four teams instead of two. I was in a team with Natasha, Wanda, and Cap. Clint had been put on a team with Darcey, Stassia and Ant Man. Ant Man’s partner, Wasp, was with Megan, Falcon and Bucky. Vision and Alyssa were on a team with Peter and Rhody. Tony had decided to pass on Dodgeball.  
“Hey Steve,” Natasha said, “Could we please have a talk about tactics?” Cap thought about it, then nodded.  
“We’ll have a five-minute strategy session before we start,” He announced. Everyone quickly found their teammates and huddled up.  
“So, we’re taking Clint out as soon as possible,” Natasha whispered to the rest of our team.  
“Smart move,” Cap agreed.  
“No. It’s just personal petty revenge,” I corrected.  
“But if we take out Clint because he is a good shot, won’t the other teams come after Abigail?” Wanda asked, “She is one of the best at accuracy after Clint after all,”  
“So, we protect Abigail and get Clint out,” Cap said.  
“That sounds like a good plan,” Natasha said. She looked over to other teams.  
“I think they’re all ready to start,”  
“Okay then,” Cap said, “Let’s go win this,” My dodgeball team broke out of the huddle and went to our wall. The other teams noticed our movement and went to their own walls.  
“F.R.I.D.A.Y. please start the game,” Cap asked the AI that ran the base.  
“Of course, Mr Rodgers,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. said “Game will commence in five… four… three… two… one,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. released the balls we used for dodgeball from the ceiling of the training room. Had we been playing with powers and suits of armour, I would bet on Darcey reaching the fallings balls first due to her superspeed. Instead, it was Clint who reached them, shortly before Wasp. True to our plan, Cap ran in front of me. Our plan didn’t last very long.  
“Ms Romanoff has been eliminated by Mr Barton,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. announced.  
“That wasn’t supposed to happen,” Clint cried out “It was meant to hit Wanda,” Everyone forgot that we were playing dodgeball to look at Natasha. The former Russian spy stood in place.  
“Abs, please get me out. I need to go hide somewhere,” Clint begged.  
“Ah… okay,” I said, carefully walking towards a ball. I picked it up and threw it at Clint.  
“Mr Barton has been eliminated by Miss Jackson,” F.R.I.D.A.Y announced.  
“Thank you,” Clint said, running out of the training room.  
“He does realise that I’m not going to kill him, right?” Natasha asked.  
“I don’t think so,” I said.  
“Ms Romanoff, could you remove yourself from the court so that the game can be resumed?” F.R.I.D.A.Y. asked. Natasha walked off the court and sat on our team’s out bench.  
“Please resume the game,” With Clint and Natasha both out in the first minute, the game was very much a free for all. I noticed very quickly that Peter had decided to break the rules and climb onto the training room’s ceiling. Rhody would get a ball and then pass it to Peter who would fire it at someone at his leisure. I kept this in the back of my head as I dodged attacks from nearly everyone. I managed to get Bucky, Wasp and Falcon out before everyone noticed that I was the best person to get out. Keeping an eye on Peter, I dodged an attack from Stassia. The dodge put me next to Cap.  
“Hey Cap?”  
“Yes Abigail?”  
“Peter’s on the roof,” I told him, “He’s actually making his way towards us. Don’t look at him,”  
“What’s your plan?” Cap asked, jumping over an attack from Rhody.  
“I’m going to keep acting like I don’t know he’s there, but I need you and Wanda to tell me when Peter is directly above me,”  
“Of course,” Cap said, “And I told you to call me Steve,”  
“I know,” I called over my shoulder as I ran to my left to get out of the way from an attack from Ant Man.  
“Mr Lang has been eliminated by Miss Maximoff,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. announced.  
“Nice one Wanda,” I called out to my teammate.  
“Thanks Abigail,” Wanda called back, “There’s a spider above you by the way,” I reacted quickly to catch a ball from Cap. I then looked up at the ceiling and smiled at Peter as I threw the ball upwards.  
“Mr Parker has been eliminated by Miss Jackson,”  
“Oh, come on,” Peter said.  
“That’s what you get for cheating Pete,” I said. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my right side.  
“Miss Jackson has been eliminated by Miss Anderson,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. announced.  
“Sorry,” I heard Alyssa shout.  
“All good Alyssa!” I said, “Nice shot,”  
“Thanks,” Alyssa said, smiling a little. I walked to the out bench and sat next to Natasha.

Natasha and I were eventually joined by Cap when Rhody caught him off guard after Megan threw and missed. Stassia at this stage was the last of her team after Wanda had gotten Darcey. Megan redeemed herself by getting Alyssa out as soon as she had gotten Stassia out. That just left Wanda, Megan, Rhody and Vision. With all their team out, Stassia, Darcey and Ant Man started cheering for different teams. Wanda and Megan seemed to make a temporary truce to get Rhody and Vision out as they simultaneously took the two out.  
“Mr Rhodes has been eliminated by Miss Maximoff. Vision has been eliminated by Miss Greenwood,” It all came down to a final showdown between Megan and Wanda. As part of Wanda’s team, I had a moral obligation to cheer Wanda on. Vision, and by extent Alyssa, also joined us on cheering Wanda on. Everyone started taking sides as Megan and Wanda circle each other. Darcey, however, looked distraught. She was caught between cheering on her mentor and cheering on her best friend. Either way, the noise generated by everyone else was deafening. It was probably a good thing that Clint wasn’t in the room. After ten minutes of dodging and throwing, Megan felt her exhaustion and Wanda took her opening. The ball that Wanda threw hit Megan on her left thigh.  
“Miss Greenwood has been eliminated by Miss Maximoff. Miss Maximoff has won the game,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. announced, “Would you like to restart Mr Rodgers?”  
“No thank you F.R.I.D.A.Y.” Cap said. Everyone who got out got off the benches and went into the centre of the training room to congratulate Wanda and Megan for lasting the longest and to shake the other teams hands in a sign of sportsmanship. Tony decided to come into the training room as I was shaking hands with Falcon, who insisted that I call him Sam.  
“Okay all teenagers, I want you suited up and to meet me outside. I’m going to put you through your paces,” He announced. There was a collective groan from the six of us.  
“Chop chop guys, we don’t have all day,” Tony said, turning around and leaving the training room.  
“The sooner we get out there, the soon we can get this over and done with,” Stassia said, walking towards the exit.  
“Agreed,” I said, following my friend out.

Cap, Tony and Vision met us outside in front of a large obstacle course.  
“We’re going to be testing your strength, agility, balance, coordination and speed,” Tony explained, “We’ll be able to see what you’re going to need improvement on, so we’ll be better equipped to train you. Now who wants to go first?” The six of us fell silent and tried to avoid eye contact with Tony, Cap or Vision. Eventually Stassia decided to go.  
“Where’s the starting line?” She asked.  
“By the ropes,” Tony said. Stassia walked over to the start line.  
“When you’re ready, go” Cap instructed, “We’ll be timing you. Feel free to use whatever you think you need to.” I watched as Stassia rocked a little on her feet before she started running towards the ropes. There was a little platform that you had to climb up first before the swinging ropes. Stassia got up there with ease but paused at the ropes. Stassia took a few seconds before deciding to fly past the ropes.  
“What Cap forgot to mention,” Tony said, his voice projected some form of microphone “Was that you can only use your powers or enhancements once during the course. So Stassia, no more flying for you,” Stassia set herself down on the platform before the next obstacle. The next obstacle looked like it was made of seven tilted steps that went up in height in a curve, a piece of rope and a landing pad that was slightly taller than the final step. The obstacle looked very familiar.  
“Anyone else feeling this is American Ninja Warrior?” I asked  
“It was Cap’s idea,” Tony said, avoiding eye contact, “He was always so interested in it when we watched it back at the tower,”  
“Are you sure that wasn’t you Tony?” Cap asked, “Because I seem to remember you always getting very animated when it was on. I believe I saw you cry-”  
“Aren’t we meant to be watching Stassia complete the course?” Tony cut Cap off.  
“Yes we are,” In total it took Stassia 10 minutes to complete the course which included a rock climbing wall, several balancing beams that gymnast use and a few targets to hit.  
“I hate you… so much… right now,” Stassia said between breaths. She was bending over a little with her hands on her knees. Vision handed her a bottle of water.  
“Drink this,” He instructed. Stassia took the bottle and stood up straight. She opened it and drunk a quarter of the water in it.  
“How did I do?” Stassia asked.  
“You did good. Now let’s see if anyone can beat Stassia’s time,” Tony said, “Abigail, you’re up next,”

After my run of the course, I sat down on the grass next to Stassia. Vision handed me a bottle of water.  
“Thanks,” I manged to say, opening the bottle.  
“You did good. Impressive work getting on your hoverboard like that.”  
“It was use my hoverboard or climb up a rock wall unharnessed. And I don’t do rock climbing very well with a harness,”  
“Understandable,” Stassia said, “Oh look – Darcey’s up,”  
“She’ll use her speed at those steps,” I said, “At least that’s when I would use it. You need as much momentum as you can get up the steps and to the rope and she’s the best person to get momentum,”  
“Good point,” Stassia said, “I think Megan’s going to use her sticky gloves on the rock wall and not worry about the handholds,”  
“And… I’m not entirely sure when Alyssa will use her powers,”  
“Probably the ropes, like I did,” Stassia said, “It only needs her to go forward, not up. She’s not completely comfortable flying at heights yet,”  
“How do you know that?” I asked.  
“I’ve offered to help teach her to fly even though my boots and repulsors are completely different to her abilities,” Stassia said, “I noticed she was struggling and as the only other member of our team that can fly, I thought I could help her,”  
“I didn’t notice she struggled. I should have – I’m the leader and leaders should know these things,”  
“Yes, leaders are meant to know things about their team, but you’re not that sort of leader who needs to know everything about everyone. When we were at Hamilton’s campaign opening, the first thing you said when you meet up with Darcey and Peter was a reminder that we needed to worry about our mission and not the people behind the masks at that point in time. You’re a voice of reason and planning type of leader. I follow you because I know your plans are sound and you’re willing to make adjustments if someone can’t do something. I mean, you could always make more of an effort to get to know everyone, but right now you’re the leader we need. None of us have gone up against something like this without our mentors backing us up. Megan and I are nervous while Alyssa and Darcey are just plain inexperienced. You don’t seem to be nervous and you’re not inexperience. You’re the steam train chugging full steam ahead and the rest of us are just carriages trying to keep up with you,”  
“Still doesn’t excuse the fact that I didn’t notice,”  
“That’s true. We can work on that later. But for now, let me handle the emotional stuff. You’re not exactly in the right place to handle everyone else’s problems,”  
“Thanks, Stassia,” I said, “You’re a really good friend,”  
“You’re welcome,” Stassia said, “Oh look at that Darcey’s finished,”  
“It’s probably because she shaved about a minute or so off her time with her super speed,”  
“Sounds like someone’s jealous,”  
“Nope. Just being incredibly realistic here. Super speed means faster time,”  
“If you say so,”

As expected, Darcey got the fast time of the day with 8 minutes and 57 seconds. Peter was surprisingly the second fastest with 9 minutes and 30 seconds. I was in third equal with Megan who had 9 minutes and 56 seconds. Stassia had a time of exactly 10 minutes. This meant that Alyssa took the longest with her time of 11 minutes and 23 seconds.  
“Alyssa actually did everything fine,” Cap said, “It’s more of a confidence thing than anything else that is holding her back. But confidence will come with time. All of us could use a little confidence booster when needed. Darcey, you decided to use your speed on the steps why?”  
“I’ve seen American Ninja Warrior,” Darcey shrugged, “Abigail reminded me where I had seen those steps. My dad was always talking about how fast you needed to go to properly beat the steps. And I can go pretty fast,”  
“While this course is designed to test athletic abilities, it also shows how you use your brains and what holds you back. For Darcey, she made a good decision to use her one shot at super speed on the one obstacle that requires speed. Abigail, however, could have used her hoverboard for the thing she struggled on the most during her run – the steps. But she used it on the rock wall,” Tony said, “Do you want to explain why?”  
“You know I don’t like rock wall climbing, even with a harness,” I said, shrugging. I hoped that no one would pull in my loose excuse.  
“I thought you were going to work on that?” Cap asked.  
“I was focused on outdoor survival and that sort of thing,” I said, “Didn’t have time to find the nearest rock wall climbing centre,”  
“Okay then,” Tony sighed, “Abigail doesn’t like falling for those who don’t know. She gets really scared about it too,”  
“So what? I was using my brain. I knew I would freak out about the rock climb thus slowing me down. I knew I would struggle with the steps since I’m more of a long distance, pace yourself type of runner, but I knew I could do the steps without the need to by pass them,”  
“She does have a point Tony,” Cap said. Tony sighed.  
“That was the point I was trying to make,” He explained, “While Darcey used her abilities to her advantage, Abigail chose to use her hoverboard to by pass her fear of falling which would mean she lost valuable time over using it to get the past the steps which she would struggle on physically. Each of you need to know your limits and how to work around them while still playing to your advantage. It’s a tough skill to learn, but I’m sure you’re adapt to it quickly,”  
“We’ll give this obstacle course another go next month and see if you guys have improved,” Cap said, “But for now, rest up. Go be normal teenagers,”  
“Normal isn’t exactly in our vocab Cap,” Darcey said.  
“I know,” Cap laughed a little.  
“And Abigail, could you get Clint out of the air ducts?” Tony asked, “He might clog up the system,”  
“I’ll try,” I said, “He probably won’t leave the ducts until we’re about to head off to the farm,”  
“I was afraid you were going to say that,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you're enjoying the story so far. I love hearing feedback from people so please leave a comment and kudos before you leave. Please subscribe to the story and I hope to have more chapters up soon :)


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finals Week. Just in time for my own set of practice exams.

Three weeks goes fast when you’re going between training, school and sabotaging campaign events. Without noticing, Finals Week was upon me and my friends. Stassia offered to have us all over at her place to study on the Monday. None of us had a final that day. A lot of my team had the same subjects which meant we could all help each other study. Darcey, Megan and Peter had mostly science-based subjects so they all huddled around several textbooks with each of them stopping the conversation at times to talk to someone else about another subject. Darcey often kept asking questions about our joint Classics final while Peter would get side-tracked when he started talking to Stassia about engineering. For me, I talked to nearly everyone. I talked to Stassia about World History and French. Sometimes the subjects overlapped. Mr Goodwin, our history teacher had given us three topics to chose from for our finals; Bastille Day, Waitangi Day and Indian Independence Day. Both Stassia and I had chosen to do Bastille Day. I had chosen Bastille Day because I had been given a simple crash course on the topic in French last year. I don’t know why Stassia chose Bastille Day. Either way we got to talking about it. Sometimes in French.  
“Quelle année a été l’assaut de Bastille?” Stassia asked. I looked up from my Classics textbook  
“1789,” I replied, “1790 was the Fete de la federation. Bastille Day marks both occasions,”  
“Cool,” Stassia replied, “Any idea what the French call Bastille Day?”  
“Formally? La fete national but more commonly le 14 julliet.”  
“Como sabia ella lo que Stassia estaba diciendo?” Alyssa asked  
“Mucha practica,” I replied. Alyssa looked shocked.  
“How?”  
“I take Spanish as well,” I shrugged, “But you have a much better handle on the language than I do,” Alyssa blushed.  
“I… I think you do too,”  
“Thanks,” I smiled, “Hey do you want to meet up on Thursday? We could help each other with the Spanish finals,”  
“Uh… I have my final on Thursday,”  
“Wednesday then. I help you, you help me?” Alyssa nodded.  
“Cool,”

Tuesday had two finals for me; Math and English. I had given Clint, and the other Avengers, notice that my team was not going to be pulled out of the most important tests of the year unless it was an emergency involving family. The English Final was first. It was made of three parts. The first was answering general questions about a written text, the second was about an oral or a visual text while the third part was just general writing. During the test I felt that I was doing okay up until the third part. This year the prompt was difficult. The person who wrote the exams wanted us to write about the times they had been saved. It was almost as if they wanted people to relive their worse memories. I had nothing to write about. I had never been saved. That meant I had to think outside of the box. With only an hour left of the exam, I decided just to go with my gut and hope for the best. With an hour and a half break between morning finals and afternoon finals, I had lunch with my friends as we started stressing about our math finals. By the time that the math final was over I took the train back home and collapsed on the couch in Clint’s living room.  
“Sounds like you’ve had a hard day,” Clint said.  
“I hate finals so much. And I still have like four more to do,” I groaned.  
“I know you do,”  
“Why do we let one test determine our whole lives?”  
“Cause that’s what the government says,”  
“Well the government sucks,”  
“Tell me about,”  
“Can we have pizza for dinner?” I asked, “I don’t think I could handle anything else,”  
“As long as you pay for it,”  
“Sure,”

Wednesday morning was Spanish study time. Alyssa and I had decided to meet up at a small café a few blocks away from the school as both Alyssa and I had finals in the afternoon. I always wondered what it would be like hanging out with Alyssa one on one. I remembered what Stassia had said about Alyssa during our training day at Avengers Headquarters. Alyssa was inexperienced in the superhero business. I only knew very little about Alyssa. I think she liked it that way. Even though I was as emotionally aware of things like Stassia was, I did notice that Alyssa was jumpy, nervous and a lot scared. I arrived five minutes before I was supposed to meet Alyssa. Knowing I had the time, I jumped in line for the checkout. It took me two minutes to get to the front of the line and another minute to order a medium sized hot chocolate and a chocolate muffin. Stepping away from the cashier, I brought my phone out of my pocket.  
“Uh… Abigail…” A quiet voice said. I turned around to see Alyssa standing behind me. Alyssa was wearing an oversized grey jumper, Ugg boots and a pair of jeans. She also had her simple backpack on her back.  
“Hey Alyssa, do you want to order a drink and some food – I’m still waiting for mine,”  
“Um…”  
“Do you want me to order for you Alyssa?” Alyssa nodded, “What would you like?”  
“Can I have a hot chocolate?” Alyssa asked, looking at her feet, “And a chocolate muffin? Please? I’ll pay you back”  
“Of course. You okay to grab my order if I’m still in line? It’s under Abigail,”  
“I’ll try,” Alyssa said.  
“Thanks,” I smiled at Alyssa before going back to stand in line. Once both hot chocolates and chocolate muffins were collected, I found a booth in a corner and away from the crowd for us to sit down. Once we had set our food and drinks down, I pulled out my Spanish notebook and my pens. Alyssa did the same.  
“So, I was thinking you could help me with my pronunciation. I mean I’m good at speaking Spanish, but I’m not great. Not like you,” Alyssa blushed at the compliment, “And you can tell me what you’d like some help with,” Alyssa nodded. I took a sip of hot chocolate as Alyssa took my Spanish notebook. I started to eat my muffin as she continued to look through my notes. She stopped on my page of notes that had been entirely written in Spanish. It was the notes that my teacher had said were perfect.  
“¿Como hiciste esto?” Alyssa asked in Spanish.  
“ Mucha práctica Trabajo duro. Y un poco de buena suerte, supongo,” I reply in the same language.  
"¿Podrías enseñarme a escribir como tú?"  
“Voy a,” I smile at Alyssa who smiles a little. We spend the next hour speaking Spanish and correcting each other’s work. As the time for our finals drew closer, we packed up our Spanish books and rubbish.  
“¿Dónde aprendiste a hablar español?” I asked. Alyssa looked down at her feet.  
“Está bien. No tienes que decirme,”  
“Pasé algunos años en Sudamérica,” Alyssa said, before running off. Although I knew that I still had a long way to through to Alyssa, we’d just taken the first step to break down her walls. I smiled to myself and put our rubbish into the bin before making my way to my impending French final.

Thursday was another two finals – Classics and World History. Darcey and Stassia had crashed overnight with me as we all wanted to study for the last time. Stassia’s engineering final was the same time as mine and Darcey’s Classics final so we parted ways when we got to school. The Classics final wasn’t too bad. I actually enjoyed Classics a lot and I had studied extensively for my chosen topic. Darcey left after the Classics final to prepare for her other finals while Stassia and I decided to walk up down and grab some takeaway for lunch. Over burgers, we questioned each other’s knowledge of Bastille Day. We were so engrossed in testing our brains that we almost forgot to watch the time. Lara told me as we walked out of the final that she thought that Stassia and I weren’t going to make it. Friday was my Spanish exam. Thanks to Alyssa’s help, I felt super confident in my oral part of the final. Maybe too confident, but only time would tell. After collapsing on the couch, Clint gave me some interesting news.  
“I got a call from Hamilton’s office today. He wants to get in contact with you. Something about doing a live interview,”  
“Can I think about it tomorrow?” I got my answer when Clint’s phone started ringing.  
“Hello, Clint speaking,” Clint answered, “Yes of course Mr Hamilton, I’ll hand the phone over to her,” Clint handed me his phone. I glared at him as I took a hold of it.  
“Hello, Abigail, speaking,” I said.  
“Hello Abigail, it’s Hayden Hamilton,”  
“Oh, hello Mr Hamilton, how are you?”  
“I’m good thanks Abigail. How are you?”  
“Tired to be honest. I just finished my last final,” I replied, “What can I do for you Mr Hamilton?”  
“Remember how I said that I wanted to talk to you back when we first met at the opening of my campaign?”  
“I wouldn’t be able to forget it,”  
“Well, I have unfortunately come across several problems that would make it impossible for us to meet. However, my wonderful wife has suggested that during my television spot in a few weeks’ time we have that chat. It would give my campaign a more youthful side and really encourage the younger voters to vote,”  
“Umm… that sounds like a great idea Mr Hamilton. When exactly would this interview of sorts happen?”  
“Three weeks from now. I have the 7pm slot on the Friday,”  
“I’ll save the date Mr Hamilton,”  
“That’s great Abigail. I’ll arrange everything for you next week,”  
“Okay Mr Hamilton,”  
“Have a good weekend Abigail. Good bye,”  
“Good bye Mr Hamilton,” I ended the phone call and put the phone on the couch next to me. I sighed and rubbed my eyes.  
“I think I just agreed to be on TV with Hamilton,”  
“I think you did,” Clint said, “Are you going to be okay with that?”  
“I will be,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spanish Translation  
> “How did you do this?” Alyssa asked in Spanish.  
> “A lot of practice. Hard work. And a little bit of good luck I suppose,” I reply in the same language.  
> “Could you show me how to write like you?”  
> “I will,” I smile at Alyssa who smiles a little. We spend the next hour speaking Spanish and correcting each other’s work. As the time for our finals drew closer, we packed up our Spanish books and rubbish.  
> “Where did you learn to speak Spanish?” I asked. Alyssa looked down at her feet.  
> “It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me,”  
> “I spent a few years in South America,” Alyssa said, before running off.


	18. Chapter 18

Finally, back into the swing of school, it wasn’t long before trouble erupted on the streets. I was out everyday fighting whatever supervillain or monster decided today was the day they would conquer New York. More often that not, I would only go save the day with just Clint. Occasionally we ran across other Avengers and some of my teammates. During the first week back, I missed all my math classes. Normally I wouldn’t have complained but we had just started calculus and I wanted to be sure I could past the test on it. I also missed a few Spanish lessons, so I had decided to ask Alyssa if she wanted to meet up some time and study Spanish with me. Mrs Abernathy must have noticed my dropping attendance rate. She called me into her office during my first study period on Friday. I would have been fine with being left alone – I had really planned to study for an upcoming French test – but I understood why she did it. I steeled myself as I knocked on Mrs Abernathy’s door.  
“Come in,” I opened the door to the office. Mrs Abernathy was working at her desk as usual.  
“Hey Mrs Abernathy,” I said, making my way to the couch.  
“Good morning Abigail, how are you?” I sat down on the couch and took off my school bag.  
“I’m tired to be honest. How are you Mrs Abernathy?”  
“I’m good. You wouldn’t happen to be tired because of all the… extracurriculars you have been doing lately?”  
“A little bit. Mind you it’s all been local so it’s not like I’ve been missing every period of school for the last week,” I saw Mrs Abernathy smile when she realised I knew why she had called me in.  
“I do realise that I cannot stop you from going out and helping, I’m just making sure that you understand that I want to ensure that you are not setting yourself up to lose. We’re only a month away from the end of the year and I really don’t want to see you lose all the opportunities you can go for as a senior,” Mrs Abernathy said, “Abigail, you’re a smart girl who has a great responsibility to keep. I’m just making sure you’re okay. You said that you were tired and that your job was only part of it, could you elaborate on what else is making you tired?” Knowing that Mrs Abernathy had become a full on shrink, I allowed myself to open up.  
“I guess after being Slingshot, being on the homecoming ball committee is also weighing me down a bit. I wasn’t even the one who signed myself up for it and yet somehow, I’ve gotten to be in charge of most of it. There’s not an hour that goes by that I’m not receiving any message from the committee group chat. I know that if I leave the committee now everything will go wrong and I don’t want the blame to come with me. Besides, I doubt I’d be able to. Commitment is one of the biggest values that I was taught. When you say you’ll do something, you stick with it until the end of the project. So, I won’t leave. And while the homecoming dance is putting a lot of pressure onto me, the thing that keeps me up is Hamilton,”  
“The guy who’s running for mayor, the one who organised the apartment collapse,”  
“That’s the one,”  
“Why is he keeping you up?”  
“I decided that as part of our mission my team and I would go to Hamilton’s announcement of his campaign. Let’s just say that my team made an impression on him, me specifically. Originally, we were just going to have a private chat together because apparently, I could teach him a lot. He called Clint last week after my last final to ask if I was okay with doing it on live television. I agreed to it. I had to. He sent a bunch of questions over for me to mull over so I’d be a little bit prepared for the interview. All those questions have been keeping up. I don’t want to say the wrong thing and give away what I know about him nor do I want to reveal who I am. And the pressure of not messing up what I’m saying. There’s so much that could go wrong,” I ran my hand through my hair, “Why did I say yes? I was so stupid,”  
“You’re not stupid, you made the decision to be Slingshot. And you made the decision to go on live television. Maybe you should take a break from heroing for the next couple of days and let your mind relax. You’ll be able to think through what you want to say. Take a break from your homework as well,”  
“Are you telling me to not do my homework? Because I’m pretty sure my GPA will drop if I don’t,”  
“I’ll let your teachers know that you’ve been exempt from homework for the next two days,” Mrs Abernathy’s phone rang, “Excuse me Abigail, I better take this,” I let my mind wonder as Mrs Abernathy talked to the person on the other end of the room. I was aware that Mrs Abernathy was going to have someone come visit her shortly, but rather than listening into the conversation I took immense interest in one of the posters on Mrs Abernathy’s wall.  
“Abigail,” Being directly spoken to pulled me back to reality.  
“Yes?”  
“I’m going to have someone come visit me shortly, I’m going to have to ask you to leave now. We can pick up this conversation later if you want,”  
“Nah, I’m good Mrs Abernathy. I’ll try to relax,” I gathered up my belongings and got off the couch, “Have a nice day,”  
“You too,” Walking out of Mrs Abernathy’s office I took a right to go towards my study class. I had only been away from school life for close to ten minutes meaning I had plenty of time to continue doing study for Spanish. As I left the administration area of the school I quite literally ran into Alyssa. She was obviously quite spooked by our accidental collision.  
“Hey Alyssa,” I smiled at my friend. She didn’t return the smile.  
“Hello Abigail,” She mumbled.  
“Did you get my message, about meeting up for a Spanish study session?” Alyssa nodded, “Just let me know when you’re available and we’ll go to the same café as last time,” Alyssa nodded again before moving on.

I was in fourth period French when my implant started vibrating. Even though I’d been told by my councillor to not do any heroing, I still had a duty to check it out. I excused myself to Madame Lyons and went to the bathroom. Stassia gave me a knowing look. Since we’d become friends, the silent agreement was to take the others belongings should the classes change while one was out heroing. I smiled at my friend and left the French classroom. I made my way down the hallway to the nearest bathroom. Luckily for me, it was only a few doors down. I locked myself in one of the cubicles and touched my implant. My glasses formed over my eyes and immediately connected to Hawkeye.  
“You better be on your way,” Hawkeye said, “I don’t think we’ll be able to hold onto this guy much longer without back up,”  
“I’ll be right there, I’ll grab Fe on the way,” I said, knowing I wouldn’t be able to keep to Mrs Abernathy’s instructions, “Where are you guys?”  
“Sending you the coordinates now,” Hawkeye said, “Hurry,” The connection ended, and I touched my implant to remove the glasses. I took out my phone and sent a quick text to Stassia telling her to get the both of us out of class. I waited in the bathroom for her reply. I didn’t have to wait long. Stassia replied that she’d meet me at the side entrance of the school in a few minutes. Knowing she would keep her word, I left the bathroom and headed towards the side entrance. Stassia soon caught up with me and handed me my backpack.  
“How did you get us out of class?” I asked.  
“Hacked the schools PA system to send a message to only the French Room. We’re meant to be going to the front office, but the front office isn’t expecting us to turn up,” Stassia replied.  
“How did I ever do any type of heroing during class time without you?”  
“You made unrealistic excuses of course,” Stassia shrugged as I opened the side door for us. We followed the path to a small hideaway to change from civilian gear to hero suits. Unlike me, Stassia’s hero suit was made with the latest Nano technology from Stark Industries. Her suit was able to condense into two simple bracelets that she wore on both wrists.  
“You should think about upgrading to Nano tech,” Stassia said, noticing me pull out my suit from my bag.  
“I’ve been thinking about using something similar to my implant,” I replied, “But Nano tech is probably a better idea,”  
“You have an implant?” Stassia asked. I nodded before touching it. My glasses formed instantly.  
“I developed it myself from some alien tech SHIELD found during my time with them,” I explained, “I may not be an engineer like you, but I can still make stuff,”

The villain of the day was a guy claiming to be some sort of Mole Man. From the looks on the Avengers’ faces, this Mole Man should have been an easy fight that didn’t require the assistance of my team. Ligero, Spider Man and Gecko had shown up fifteen minutes after Fe and I had. Red Bolt had joined in five minutes after that. Amongst the chaos, a superpowered robbery was going down. Knowing that someone had to stop the robbers, Captain America sent Ligero, Fe and myself to handle them. This gave Fe and me a well needed break from the main fight and let Ligero step back for a bit. Captain America had noticed during our training session at HQ that Ligero often found herself getting overwhelmed by her powers if she wasn’t conscious of what she was doing. Fe and I should have told her to take a break from fighting all together. Ligero looked exhausted but insisted that she was okay to help us. Staying close to the footpaths, the three of us made our way to one of the banks in Queens. Cap hadn’t been clear on which bank we were meant to go to, but thankfully there were enough civilians running away from the crime that we quickly found it. The bank robbers we faced were the stereotypical bank robbers you saw in films and on TV; black ski masks with matching black clothes and gloves. There were three off them. Without a closer look when I wasn’t fighting the robbers, I couldn’t really tell any obvious things about them. Having been trained to deal with small disturbances such as bank robberies, Fe, Ligero and I started the fight. Noticing that they were under attack, the robbers pulled out their weapons. A small part of my brain saw the similarities between the guns my bank robbers had and the guns and other weapons that the Vulture and his crew had made. Realising this wasn’t going to be an ordinary fight, I focused on my bank robber. I probably shouldn’t have. Within minutes, I’d taken down my bank robber and looked over to Fe and Ligero. Fe had pinned hers to the grounded and was currently making restraints. Ligero was the opposite way around. I watched as the third robber pulled up his ski mask above his mouth and whisper something into her ear. I was helpless to do anything as Ligero screamed. Her scream sent a shockwave of telekinetic energy out from her. Fe was hit first. She was thrown to the ground. Because I was distracted, my robber took an opportunity to push me off themselves. The push happened the same time the shock wave hit me. The added force of the shockwave threw me against the brick wall of the bank.

The last thing I remember about that day was being carried in someone’s arms, my right wrist throbbing and a ringing in my ears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to say - this is the longest piece of work I have ever written in my life. I wouldn't have written as much as I have if it wasn't for my small group of friends who begged me for more whenever I release a new chapter to them. Thanks to them, I've been able to develop these characters in ways I probably wouldn't have thought of if I had done this alone. So to continue making this the best work I have ever done, I would love it if you (the readers) could leave a comment (or even a kudos) so that I feel that my story is wanted in the world.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of Ligero's wave of energy is both mentally and physically troubling for the people involved.

The first time I wake up after the bank robbery is for only a few minutes. My ears were ringing a little and I could see Clint looking out a window. I only vaguely recognised my surroundings as the medical ward at Avengers Headquarters. The second time I woke up, Clint was sleeping in an arm chair. Natasha was also sitting in one, but unlike Clint, she was watching me.  
“What time is it?” I asked. My throat was dry making it hard to speak. Noticing this, Natasha got up from the chair and walked towards me. I turned my head to watch her pour a cup of water.  
“Drink this,” She said, handing me the plastic cup. I took it and took small sips.  
“Do you know where you are?” Natasha asked.  
“Infirmary?” I said. In the dim light, I saw Natasha nod before she started to say something. What worried me was that I couldn’t hear everything she said.  
“Repeat?” I asked, knowing that I wasn’t well enough to speak full sentences just yet.  
“You should sleep Abigail,” I heard Natasha say. Before I went back to sleep I saw Natasha say something.

Alyssa woke up from her induced coma a week after what everyone was dubbing an outburst. Since I had woken up the second time, I’d had a few doctors come to check on me. From these doctors I learnt that I had been in my own coma for two days before waking up. Alyssa’s outburst had thrown me against a brick wall giving me a concussion after rendering me unconscious. I still had some ringing in my ear but for the most part I had gotten over my small bout of bad hearing. I also learnt that I had fractured my right wrist. I was going to have a brace until homecoming. And even after homecoming, I’d probably have to use a brace occasionally for a few months. Compared to Alyssa, I had gotten off easy. I hadn’t been able to learn much of what had happened to her due to patient doctor confidentiality so when I learnt she was waking up, Clint took me to see her. Her infirmary room was only two doors down from mine. The room in the middle had been Stassia’s who’d been told to have two nights observation. As I opened the door, Alyssa started talking.  
"¿Dónde estoy? ¿Dónde estoy?" Alyssa cried, pulling on her restraints. I recognised the language – Spanish. Clint moved quickly towards the emergency call button.  
“Stop Clint, I got this,” I said. Clint stopped and stepped back.

"Alyssa. Soy yo, Abigail. Tuviste un accidente. Estás en la sede de Avengers. Estás en la enfermería " Alyssa stopped pulling on her restraints and looked at me, "Los doctores…"  
Alyssa looked scared at the mention of doctors, so I changed what I was saying,  
"Las personas que te cuidaban necesitaban restringir tus brazos para que te ocurriera algo mientras dormías".  
"¿Qué pasó Abigail?"Alyssa asked, "¿Qué hice?"  
"Para ser honesto, no estoy seguro de lo que pasó. ¿Quieres que busque a alguien que pueda verificar si hay heridos, para que podamos ayudarte? "Alyssa nodded.  
“We’ll figure out what happened as soon as possible. But first we need you to get better. I’ll call Vision, so he can come see you,” I told her. Alyssa smiled at the mention of her mentor.  
“I’m glad you’re alright Alyssa,” I said.  
“I’m glad you’re not hurt,” Alyssa said, “I never wanted to hurt anyone,” I watched as Alyssa shed a single tear. Whatever had happened in South America must have been life shattering. I smiled at Alyssa weakly before turning around and going out the door. Clint followed me out.  
“She’s going to freak if we tell her what happened at this point in time,” I tell Clint, “We have to tell her the truth, but it would destroy her stability,”  
“I know,” Clint said.  
“I’m going to talk to Vision about helping Alyssa recover from her outburst,” I said.  
“That’s a good idea,” Clint agreed, “You did a good job calming her down,”  
“Thanks,” I spotted one of the medical staff walking towards us, “Excuse me, you wouldn’t happen to be someone looking after Ligero would you?”  
“Yes, I’m Doctor Fredrick,” She said, “What can I do for you?”  
“Ligero has woken up. She woke up very frightened, but I managed to calm her down a little bit. We talked in Spanish for a bit before I left,” I explained.  
“Okay, thanks for letting me know,” Doctor Fredrick said, “I do think you should be present when myself or any of my colleagues are talking to Alyssa in case she needs support or starts speaking Spanish,”  
“Of course, Doctor Fredrick,” I said, “I’ll meet you at Ligero’s room in a few minutes, I just have to go talk to some people first. That’s if you want to check on her,”  
“Okay,” Doctor Fredrick agreed, “I’ll go check on her in ten minutes,”  
“Okay. I’ll meet you there,” I said. Doctor Fredrick nodded and continued on her way.

After meeting with Doctor Fredrick, Clint and I went to visit Vision in his room to let him know that Alyssa was awake. Vision was very happy with his protegee’s improvement. I told him about how Doctor Fredrick was going to be checking Alyssa very shortly and that I had been asked to be there. Vision nodded and said we should get going so we’d be on time. Vision and I left Clint at Vision’s room and made our way to the medical ward. As we walked, I asked Vision about Alyssa.  
“She woke up yelling in Spanish. I know that she lived in South America for a while, but I don’t understand why she would immediately go to Spanish when she woke up scared,” I said, “Do you have any idea why she would do that?” Vision hesitated in answer.  
“I do have an idea of why she would act like this, but it is not my secret to tell you,” Vision replied, “Even then, I do not know the whole story,”  
“Okay. Is there anything I should know; even minimal detail is good enough? I should know something. It may help,” Vision takes a second to think about it.  
“Alyssa was not in South America willingly and I truly do not know what scars it has left her,” Vision said sadly.

Both Alyssa and I were cleared by Monday, ten days after Alyssa’s outburst. I was cleared to go back to school while Alyssa was told to take at least another week off to completely recover. It felt odd missing so much school. It also felt weird telling people a lie when the truth was on my wrist. I told my friends that I’d left school during fourth period on a Friday to spend a full weekend with Clint and the rest of my adopted family at his farm. On Saturday evening, I’d misplaced my footing on the steps coming down to dinner. This had caused me to fall down the remaining three steps. I’d fractured my wrist in an attempt to break my fall. Not that my attempt worked – I had gotten concussed and slipped into a coma for a few days. When I was released from the hospital upstate, Clint and Laura were instructed to keep me home for a few days and yesterday I had been given the all clear to go back to school. And going back to school meant dealing with the homecoming committee whom I had deliberately ignored in my time off. I was waiting in the office to discuss my increased set of absences to the Principal when Grace and Clara cornered me. They started asking me why I had disappeared off the side of the earth, leaving them and the rest of the committee without their leader. I explained what had happened and made a weak excuse of no screen time because of my concussion.  
“I’m glad you’re alright,” Grace said, “Although I do hope your brace will be coming off in time for homecoming. We can’t have our chairperson with an ugly brace on her wrist in the committee photos,” I knew that Grace meant well, but I still felt the emotional stab of not meeting society’s standards of beauty.  
“I asked my doctors – I can take it off for homecoming, but I’ll probably need a brace occasionally for a few weeks afterwards,” I said, “That’s at the moment anyway. I have a check up on Thursday,”  
“That’s good,” Clara said, “Have you picked out what you’re wearing yet?”  
“You have got something to wear right?” Grace asked, noticing that I was taking my time to reply.  
“No,” I admitted, “Laura and I were going to go looking for something before my accident,”  
“You’re about my size Abigail, I have a dress that you can borrow. I wore it to last years homecoming,” Clara said, “That’s if you want it,”  
“Thanks for the offer Clara,” I said, “But I think I’m going for a suit and tie this year,”  
“What? You can’t wear a suit!” Grace exclaimed.  
“It’s 2018 Grace, Abigail can wear what she wants,” Clara came to my rescue, “She knows how to rock a blazer to school and women can look great in suits. Sometimes women suit it better than men,” Grace huffed and walked off. She was obviously very annoyed about my decision to wear a suit and tie.  
“I’m sorry about her,” Clara said, “Grace may claim to be pro LGBT, but she can be a bit homophobic at times. Anything that goes against the norm freaks her out,”  
“Who says I’m LGBT?” I said.  
“You cuff your jeans and I know you’ve dated boys and girls. I’m putting money on bisexual. Possibly some gender orientation that’s not binary,”  
“You got me there Clara. Bi and proud. And non-binary,” I said, “You?”  
“Lesbian. We dated the same girl a few years ago,”  
“Which one?”  
“Clancy. She cheated on me with you,”  
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t even know you two were a thing. I would have left her alone completely if I had known,”  
“It’s okay. It was what? Two years ago, now,” Clara said, “Besides, I’m not very open with my identity. I don’t blame you for being the other girl,”  
“You taking anyone to the dance?”  
“My girlfriend,” Clara smiled, “She’s home-schooled, but as far as the school knows we’re just friends,”  
“Abigail, the principal is ready to see you now,” The receptionist said.  
“Wish me luck,” I said, getting up from my chair.  
“Luck,”

I was exhausted when I got home from school. I sat down on the couch and remembered that I usually used Monday after school to patrol the city. Trying to get up form the couch, I felt a sharp pain in my right wrist.  
“Crap,” I said, giving up on getting up for now.  
“What?” Clint asked from the kitchen.  
“I just realised something,”  
“What did you realise?”  
“I can’t be Slingshot with a broken wrist. I mean I could use a crossbow with one hand, but even then, it would be difficult. How am I supposed to stop Hamilton? The election is in three weeks and I’m not going to be fit for at least another month after that,”  
“Well it’s a good thing you’ve got that doctor’s appointment on Thursday then,” Clint said, “Dr Cho fixed me after I was shot when we first met Wanda and Petrio. She’s going to be doing something similar by fixing your bone,”  
“How long is it going to take?”  
“You’ll probably have to miss two days of school,” I sighed.  
“You do realise I’m walking the line when it comes to be being able to continue onto 12th grade right? I had to see the principal this morning because my attendance lately has not been good enough. Even with my good grades, if I don’t stop missing school I’ll be held back,”  
“I’ll let the others know that you can’t take any jobs during school hours,” Clint said, “Remind me to never let my other kids become heroes until they’ve finished college,”  
“I think Laura has that handled. Although, if any of them want to be heroes I don’t think we’d be able to stop them,”  
“On we wouldn’t,” Clint agreed, “I was thinking Subway for dinner,”  
“We should think about learning to cook,” I said, “Take away will get boring over time,”  
“We do either of us have time to go to cooking classes?”  
“I’m sure I can find some sort of simple recipe online. Maybe I could start with pizza,” I said, taking my phone out of my blazer pocket. I did a quick google search.  
“Pizza sounds good. Want to do if for dinner tomorrow?”  
“I’ll give it a try,” I said, pulling up a promising recipe, “Do we have yeast?”  
“No. I think we only have bread, spread, popcorn, cookies and cereal,”  
“I’ll go shopping tomorrow after school then,”  
“Good idea,” I read the recipe I had found and decided that this would be the one I stuck with.  
“Oh, Abigail,”  
“Yeah?”  
“Your grandparents called this morning. They’re coming up next week to discuss visitation,”  
“But next week I have that interview with Hamilton,”  
“I’m sure they’ll be done by then. You’ll be fine,”  
“If you say so,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so happy that I've been on a roll for writing this story. Please leave a comment or kudos if you've enjoyed reading the story. I apprieciate any and all feedback. Thanks for reading :)
> 
> Translations:  
> "¿Dónde estoy? ¿Dónde estoy?" - Where am I? Where am I?  
> "Alyssa. Soy yo, Abigail. Tuviste un accidente. Estás en la sede de Avengers. Estás en la enfermería ". - Alyssa. It's me, Abigail. You had an accident. You're at Avengers Headquarters. You're in the infirmary  
> "Los doctores…" - The doctors  
> "Las personas que te cuidaban necesitaban restringir tus brazos para que te ocurriera algo mientras dormías". - The people taking care of you needed to restrain your arms so that something happened to you while you slept  
> "¿Qué pasó Abigail?" - What happened Abigail?  
> "¿Qué hice?" - What did I do?  
> "Para ser honesto, no estoy seguro de lo que pasó. ¿Quieres que busque a alguien que pueda verificar si hay heridos, para que podamos ayudarte? " - “To be honest, I’m not sure what happened. Do you want me to get someone who can check for any injuries, so we can help you?”


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abigail's grandparents return to New York.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few things  
> \- Firstly, I've changed Naomi's name to Abigail because of reasons. I've gone back and changed all the chapters to fit Abigail  
> \- Secondly, I'm working on adding translations in a couple of chapters that I've missed.

A week after I returned to school, my grandparents returned to New York. In a sign of goodwill, Clint and I meet them at the airport. Unlike the last time we had done this, there was no tears and comforting hugs. Grandad was the first to spot my brace. Even with my bone made new, Dr Cho had advised that I used a brace whenever I could to ensure it was healed properly. She had also told me to not use any of my weapons for a week and then to build up my strength again.  
“What did you do?” Grandad asked. I could hear the anger bubbling up.  
“I missteped coming down the stairs at the farm,” I explained, “I fractured my wrist. It’s okay. Really,”  
“Are you sure?” Grandad asked, seeing right through the lie.  
“Can we talk about this in the car Grandad?” I asked, “I have to do some homework to do for tomorrow,”  
“Well I’m sure your homework can wait,” Grandma said, “You have other important things to do,”  
“Can’t do the other important things,” I said, “I’m on medical leave until homecoming,”  
“Okay then,” Grandad said.  
“Have you had dinner yet Mrs Jackson? I know a nice diner we could go to if you wanted something to eat,” Clint asked.  
“We had a meal on the plane Mr Barton,” Grandma said, “Please take us to the hotel. I would like to have a good night’s sleep before we start tomorrow,”  
“What’s tomorrow?” I asked, as we all started walking towards the exit of the terminal “And do I need to be there for it?”  
“Yes, you will need to be there,” Clint said, “We’re discussing visitation. You knew that?”  
“I did?”  
“Yeah, I told you last week,”  
“Did you clear it with school?” I asked. The airport’s automatic doors opened as we approached it. My family joined the sea of people walking outside the airport. Most had suitcases or bags.  
“Yep. They can’t penalize you for missing school for a legal matter. Or even for medical reasons,” Clint said.  
“Why does Abigail’s school have a problem with her attendance?” Grandad asked.  
“I’ve missed a lot of school lately. Mainly because I’ve been recovering. Doctor’s orders,” I said, “I told you, I’ll explain in the car,”  
“Why don’t you pay for the parking Abs? And I’ll get the car ready. You remember where we parked?” Clint asked, handing me some money and the ticket for parking. I nodded and separated from my family.

Returning from paying the ticket, I slipped into the front seat of Clint’s pick-up truck. I was careful with my wrist as I pulled my seatbelt over me. Clint started the pick-up and backed out of the parking spot. Following the marked arrows on the road, Clint found the exit and joined the traffic on the motor way.  
“So, what truly happened to your wrist?” Grandad asked. I sighed.  
“We were fighting… I can’t remember exactly what we were fighting, but it was taking a while and a lot of man power to stop whoever it was. There was a bank robbery so Fe, Ligero and I were sent to stop it. We almost did. Something happened and Ligero lost control of her powers creating a shockwave. I was thrown against a brick building. I got a concussion and fractured my wrist. I was in a coma for two days. Dr Cho fixed my wrist last Thursday, but I still have to wear the brace to stabilise the bone and to keep up my cover of ‘I broke my wrist falling down the stairs’,”  
“Ligero isn’t one of these inhumans or mutants we hear about on the news, are they?” Grandma asked. I thought about it.  
“Honestly? I don’t know. And I don’t particularity care what Ligero is. She’s my friend and I trust her with my life,” There was an uneasy silence in the car. I would have turned on the radio if I hadn’t known for a fact that Clint’s car radio was broken. We soon came across familiar streets and I started to get antsy.  
“I think I’ll just skip doing the homework tonight,” I said, “I need to have a meeting,”  
“Sure. Be back by 9 though. You need to do your Spanish revision. You said you had your make up test tomorrow morning,” Clint said, pulling into the parking structure for our apartment.  
“But you’re on medical leave,” Grandma protested.  
“From heroing, yes, but from meeting with my friends to discuss our next step? You would have to tie me down, It’s two weeks before election night, and I have to be on live TV this week,” Clint came to a stop and put his truck in park. I undid my seat belt and got out of the truck.  
“I’ll see you when I get home from the meeting Clint. See you tomorrow grandparents,” I said, waving goodbye with by right hand and close the door with me left. Clint waved goodbye and drove off. I didn’t stick around to watch the truck leave as I made my way to the elevator. I pushed the button for my floor and checked my phone. There were a few messages from the homecoming committee as well as a few from Lara reminding me about my Spanish test tomorrow morning. I ignored these messages as I left the elevator and walked down the corridor until I reached the apartment Clint and I lived in. I used my own set of keys to open the door. After closing the door, I activated my implant on the way to my room. I used the remote-control option for my holocube to set up a conference call with my friends. The call connected as I walked into my room. Within a couple of minutes, Peter, Stassia, Alyssa, Darcey and Megan were all looking at me.  
“Are you guys free?” I asked.  
“I’m patrolling the city at the moment,” Peter said, “But I’m sure I can stop,”  
“I’m free,” Darcey said.  
“I can be at the place you chose in minutes,” Stassia agreed.  
“Give me ten minutes to clean up, and I can be on my way,” Megan said. Her hologram hand wiped what I assumed was sweat from her forehead.  
“Are you sure you want me there?” Alyssa asked.  
“Of course, Lyss!” I said, “I wouldn’t have it any other way. Besides, I think we need to have a team meeting about what happens next because we have two weeks until election night and I have yet to find out what’s going to happen,”  
“Where do you want us to meet?” Stassia asked.  
“School roof?” I said. Everyone nodded in agreement.  
“Okay, I’ll see everyone there,” One by one we all disconnected from the conference call. For the first time since Alyssa’s outburst, I put on my suit. It was like putting on your favourite pair of pyjamas after a bad day. It was comforting. I took out my hoverboard from the belt and enlarged it. Making sure I had throwing knives instead of crossbow bolts in my leg compartments, I made the split-second decision to bring along my holocube in case we needed to show people what we were saying and make notes. The cool thing about holocubes was that Tony had made them with portability in mind; just like my hoverboard they could change size meaning I could shrink the holocube and slip it into a pocket. Doing just that, I picked up my hoverboard and left my room.

Fe and Red Bolt were already there waiting for me. Fe greeted me with a hug. I didn’t make a fuss about it. I really needed it  
“Hey Darcey,” I said when Fe finally let me go.  
“Hey Abigail,” Red Bolt said. The three of us made polite conversation when Ligero made herself known. I was the first to react by pulling her into a hug. It wasn’t a tight one like Fe and I had shared minutes earlier, but it was loose enough as to not spook Ligero.  
“Glad you could make it,” I said, letting Ligero go “How are you?” Ligero looked at the ground and took in a breath.  
“I’m recovering,” She admitted, “I’m coming to school tomorrow. Vision said I’m ready for it,”  
“That’s good,” I said.  
“Come find me before school Alyssa,” Stassia said, “I’ll be in the library and we can hang out together. And if you want to we can hang out with Lara, Freya and Harriet at lunch and interval,”  
“Aren’t you going to be at school tomorrow Abby?” Ligero asked. I shook my head.  
“My grandparents are back in town to talk about visitation,” I explained, “But I’ll try to be back at school as soon as I can. I really wish I didn’t have to go to this meeting,”  
“Hey Megs!” Red Bolt said cheerfully as she spotted her friend set a sky cycle down.  
“Is that one of the SHIELD issue ones?” I asked. Gecko nodded.  
“Nat has a few stashed around and so do my parents. They let me use it for missions and stuff,” She explained, “I’m sure they’ll let you use them too,”  
“I hated those things,” I said, “Too many ways to fall to your death,”  
“You ride a hoverboard, surely that’s less safe than one of those,” Red Bolt said.  
“She has foot straps and magnetic locking. Even if Abs was upside down the chance she’d fall out and die is almost 0%,” Fe said.  
“Sorry I’m late guys,” Spider Man said as he swung onto the school roof. He spotted Gecko’s sky cycle.  
“That’s so cool! Where can I get one?”  
“Former SHIELD agents only. Sorry Pete,” Gecko said, “Besides you have your webs,”  
“Which are no good for places that are populated with high rise buildings,”  
“Not my problem,” Gecko shrugged, “So what do you want to talk about oh great leader who has a fear of falling?” The small comment about my fear made my friends laugh.  
“Just want to see where we’re at and then plan our next steps,” I said, bringing out my holocube and setting it up, “As I said earlier, I have no idea what Hamilton is going to do come election night, win or lose. We also have the small problem of being two weeks away from election night and we’re down one hero for sabotaging him unless I’m overwatch,”  
“Well I can help with one of your problems,” Gecko said, pulling out a flash drive, “May I?”  
“Go ahead. Just don’t leave any spying software on it. It’s brand new,” I said, throwing her the cube. The holoprojections disappear for the time it takes the holocube to leave my hand and reach Gecko’s. Once she has the holocube, Gecko puts her USB into the port. The holocube produces a hologram of the files on the USB and Gecko opens a folder titled HMC.  
“Open all files,” She instructs the holocube. The holocube doesn’t do anything.  
“Open all files in folder HMC,” I say. This time, the holocube does as its asked and protections of documents and blueprints and notes fill the air.  
“The updated holocube has voice recognition software. I thought it would be a good idea, especially since the six of us only use our holocubes for superhero stuff,” Fe explained, “It appears Abigail just hasn’t given us voice control yet,”  
“Like I said, it’s brand new,” I shrugged, “I’m assuming that everyone can rearrange the display at the same time still,” Fe nodded and all at once, the six of us started to move the holoscreens around so that nothing overlapped. Once that was done, Gecko explained what all the files meant.  
“When I was in England, I was able to swipe some of Harper and Galvon’s correspondence. Early on, I kept finding mentions of a device for New York. As you can see it comes up quite frequently in their emails. I was, thankfully, curious enough to find out what the device was. Unfortunately, the blueprints and notes on the device was in a code that I only managed to break a week ago. The device is some sort of mind control thing. The notes and the blueprints had a lot of sciencey things that I don’t understand, so my dad is looking into it for us. He should have the analase done by Wednesday. When he gave it a quick once over, he said that it’s going to be used on the New York public on election night whether or not Hamilton wins,” Our group fell silent.  
“That’s… that’s huge,” Red Bolt said, breaking the silence, “Are any of us even qualified enough to handle this? We should call the Avengers,”  
“We are Avengers Darcey,” I said, “We can handle this. But not alone. I’m sure we can all work with some Avengers to stop this from happening,”  
“Okay so we know what he’s planning,” Fe said, enlarging one particular blueprint, “And I’m sure in two days’ time, we’ll know the how and the where. We can come up with a plan for that. Even with homecoming that night. Can I get a copy of this blueprint?” Fe directed her question at Gecko.  
“Sure,” Fe pulled up some options for the file and sent it to herself.  
“I know where Hamilton is going to be on Friday night,” Ligero spoke up.  
“Where?” Gecko asked.  
“He’s going to be in my father’s studio filming live for an hour or so. I heard my father talking to him last night. I don’t know why though,” Ligero asked, rubbing her hands together.  
“I do,” I said, “He’s interviewing me. We’re going to talk about the apartment collapse and what my views are on politics and stuff like that,”  
“I would say we sabotage that interview, but I don’t think you’d be happy with that,” Fe said.  
“No, I wouldn’t be happy. I’m nervous enough as it is,” I admitted to my friends.  
“Well then, it’s a good thing I already know where Hamilton’s final debate is going to be,” Red Bolt said, “The final debate between the candidates is going to be in front of members of the military, past, present and probably future. My brother and I going on behalf of our dad since he’ll only just be getting back from deployment,”  
“Damn, that’s going to be highly risky,” Gecko said.  
“So, we go with small attacks. Spit balls, webs in the hair and all that jazz. Maybe some accidental knocking over of glasses of filled with drinks,” I say, “When is the debate?”  
“Exactly one week from your live interview,” Red Bolt said.  
“So, if we meet again in a week to start planning the event in full, would everyone be okay with that?” Fe asked. Everyone nodded.  
“Is there anything else we need to talk about?” Spider Man asked. I checked the time on my holocube.  
“I still have an hour and a half before I have to be back home. Is it okay with everyone to just chill here? I feel we haven’t done that at all,”  
“Yeah sure,” Red Bolt said, “But can we get something to drink? I’m really thirsty,”  
“I could see if I can find a coffee shop or something that’s still open and get us all something,” Spider Man offered, “That’s if you all pay for your own drinks,”  
“There’s a coffee shop called Time Out that way,” I point in the direction of the apartment complex that Clint and I lived in, “It’s cheap and open 24/7. It’s only maybe a block or so,”  
“I could do with a hot drink,” Gecko said. Ligero nodded in agreement.  
“Would five dollars be enough?” Fe asked, “It’s all I’ve got on me,” I nodded, pulling out my emergency cash. I had a ten-dollar bill on me.  
“I’ll pay for Lyss’ drink too,” I said, handing Spider Man the bill. Ligero smiled at me. The others soon handed over money of their own.  
“I’ll take a hot chocolate with a caramel shot,” Gecko said.  
“Chai latte,” Red Bolt said.  
“Hot chocolate for me,” Fe added to the list.  
“I’ll take a hot chocolate too please,” I said.  
“I’ll have the same as Abby,” Ligero said, softly.  
“So, I have three normal hot chocolates, one hot chocolate with a caramel shot, a chai latte and one black coffee,” Spider Man repeated the orders back to us. We all nodded in unison. Satisfied, Spider Man sent a web flying from his wrist onto the building across from Midtown. He then took a running leap off the building, holding tightly onto the web.  
“I don’t know how he does that,” I said.

Nursing our hot drinks, I sat in a circle surrounded by my friends. Peter’s mask was lifted above his nose, so he could easily drink his coffee. Stassia had placed her helmet in front of her, letting her curly hair hang over her right shoulder. Megan’s mouth covering hung around her neck. Darcey had removed her mask and put it on the roof beside her. I’d deactivated my implant. Alyssa didn’t have any mask or face obscuring object to hinder her ability to drink her hot chocolate.  
“So, I was sitting in maths, right,” Stassia recounted, “And our teacher asks if any one has revised for our math test and Nikisha yells out ‘we will when you return our marks for the last one’. So, what does our teacher do? Pulls out our last test papers and starts handing them out. When they’re finished, they ask again if anyone revised. In response to that, people bring out their math books and start revising,” The story got some laughs out of it.  
“If we did that in our class, we’d be dead,” I said.  
“I think we just get away with it because sometimes we’re too funny,” Stassia admits.  
“You know that reminds of something Megan did once,” Darcey said. Megan, who had been taking a sip of her hot chocolate, coughed.  
“Don’t you dare Darce!” Megan yelled once she’d recovered from her coughing.  
“Back when Megan was in England, we’d skype each other occasionally and early on, I bribed her to tell me who she had a crush on,” Darcey smiled, “I had an important test the next day and I was meant to be studying for it but instead I was talking to Megan. We were talking about crushes and I knew I could weasel it out of her if I told her I’d do some study. Which she stupidly agreed to,”  
“Who was she crushing on?” Stassia asked eagerly. Darcey stopped smiling.  
“His name was Blake,” She said. Everyone instantly made a connection to Blake Greenberg.  
“I already knew that,” I said, trying to lighten the mood, “It wouldn’t be the first time someone fell in love with someone they probably shouldn’t have, but even I have to admit – Blake is good looking,” My attempt to make the topic lighter didn’t work well; there was an uneasy silence over the group. Then my phone chimed. I pulled it out to see why it wasn’t on silent. Then I saw the time on the lockscreen.  
“Crap,” I said, switching my hot chocolate to my right hand and pushing myself up with my left “I’ve got to get going. I’ll see you all at school tomorrow,” I took out my hoverboard and enlarged it. I hoped on it.  
“See ya Slingshot,” Stassia said, tapping the side of her head. Realising what she meant, I activated my implant before waving goodbye to my friends. It was a mad rush back to the apartment complex. Unsurprisingly, Clint was waiting for me as I walked in our front door.  
“Sorry,” I said, “I was having hot drinks with friends,” I held up my nearly empty, now cold cup of Hot Chocolate.  
“Twenty minutes of Spanish and off to bed,” Clint said, “And no holocube for 24 hours,” I sighed, handing over my holocube.  
“What time is the meeting?” I asked.  
“I’ll be picking you up at the beginning of lunch. You won’t miss your Spanish test,”  
“I was hoping that was the case,”  
“I’m going to bed. Twenty minutes Abigail, and I expect you to be asleep after that,”  
“Night Clint,”  
“Night Abigail,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! :) Please leave a kudo or a comment. I love getting any sort of feedback. Please subscribe. Chapter 21 will hopefully be done soon; but I've got two weeks of holidays coming up so hopefully I'll be able to get a lot of chapters written before I go back to school. Term 3 turned out to be really busy, but I'm hoping Term 4 will only be me stressing over getting excellence credits and not studying for any of my six exams.


	21. Chapter 21

My week from hell began with a Spanish test. The twenty minutes I had done of revision the night before wasn’t enough. The test that Senor Valdez gave me was harder that I expected. There were parts of it that I wasn’t even prepared for. I was going to get in trouble for that. I was going to have to ask Alyssa for her help. Sometimes conjugation was difficult. It was hard enough trying to memorize a word in a different language let along trying to remember all the different ways it can be said and written to match the person, the number and the tense. Alyssa, even though Spanish was her second language, seemed to be able to use conjugations with ease. I guess it had something to do with her time in South America. I made a metal note to start revising more.

At lunch time, Clint picked me up. Neither of us wanted to think about what we were going to do so we tried to focus on something else.  
“What did you do to your nose?” I asked, spotting the Hello Kitty band aid covering the bridge of his nose.   
“I waked into the cupboard door,” Clint said, “That’s you left open by the way. What made you hurry that you forgot to close the door on the one cupboard above the coffee machine?”  
“I had to catch a train – and I was running a bit late. I didn’t even realise I left it open. Sorry,” I said, “Are we out of normal band aids or something?”  
“Yep – I only have the ones that Lila gave me for Christmas last year,”  
“What about the Star Wars box I gave you for your birthday?”  
“Cooper took them. And I used the last ones in the first aid kit back in March,”  
“I always knew you went through band aids like they were a chocolate bar, but I thought we wouldn’t be facing the apocalypse until at least September,”  
“Autumn came early this year,” Clint said, “Do you want to stop to get something to eat or drink before the meeting?” I shook my head.  
“Too nervous?” Clint asked  
“I don’t think I could eat even if I was hungry. There’s too much… I don’t know… looming despair, I guess, and I’ve got to be the one to stop it,”  
“You do know you always have me to help right?” Clint asked.  
“I do,”  
“And you have your friends and your adopted family. You’re never alone,”  
“I know,” Silence fell. I looked out the window and saw we weren’t moving.  
“Traffic jam?” I asked.  
“No,”  
“Red light?”  
“No,”  
“Super villain blocking our path?”  
“I wish,”  
“Then why have we stopped?”  
“Because we’re here,”  
“Are you stalling?”  
“Yes,” Clint admitted, “They had to choose this guy for the mediator,”  
“Which guy?”  
“Quinten Brown,”  
“The insurance guy on TV?”  
“That’s the one,”  
“I’m sure he can’t be that bad,” Clint just gave me one of his signature ‘just you wait and see’ looks.  
“Okay then,” I said, “Let’s quit stalling and get this over and done with,” I undid my seat belt and opened the door. The building that Clint parked in front of was a building. One that looked similar to every other building I saw on a daily basis. Sure the glass and the stone and outfitting was different but that didn’t matter – it was all the same design.   
“Now who’s stalling,” Clint said, walking past me. I took a deep breath and followed him.

My grandparents were waiting for us when Clint and I arrived. So were the lawyers. I recognized both from the hearing. Clint shook hands with both lawyers. The one who had been helping Clint, put his other hand on Clint’s shoulder as they shook hands. The other lawyer kept the hand shake with Clint short.   
“Hi Grandma, Hi Grandad,” I said.  
“Hello Abigail,” Grandma said, “How’s your wrist?”  
“It’s feeling okay,” I said, “Although I regret not wearing my brace today,”  
“Hello Mr Barton,” Grandad acknowledged Clint.  
“Good afternoon Mr Jackson, Mrs Jackson,” Clint said, “How are you?”  
“We’re good thank you,” Grandad replied.  
“What happened to your nose?” Grandma asked, noticing Clint’s band aid.  
“Someone left a cupboard open and when I went into the kitchen at three am I walked right into it,” Clint said.  
“Why didn’t you turn on the lights?” Grandad asked  
“You can see them from the bedrooms,” I said, “Clint didn’t want to wake me up. I only found out that it had happened this morning when I woke up,” Grandad didn’t seem that satisfied with my answer, but he didn’t have any time to press further as Quinten Brown came out of his office door.  
“Noel, Annette, it’s wonderful to see you,” He said, shaking hands with my grandparents. Brown then turned to me.  
“You must be Abigail Jackson. I’ve heard wonderful things about you from your grandparents,” Brown and I shook hands.  
“Nice to meet you Mr Brown,”  
“Please call me Quinten Abigail,” Brown said, “You Mr Barton, can call me Mr Brown. Now how about we all come into my office and we can discuss visitation,”

My grandparents wanted me to stay for the entirety of the summer holidays with them. I did not want to spend three months in Dallas, Texas. Mostly because I would be miles away from my friends. And as far as I was aware, there was no super villains in Dallas for me to beat up when I got frustrated. Brown was all for my grandparents’ plan. Clint, and his lawyer, wasn’t.  
“What about if my friend wants me to go to Europe with them?” I asked, “Stassia mentioned that her family is thinking about going to Europe and she asked me if I would interested in going with her if the trip did go ahead since it’s meant to be a business trip for her parents,”  
“If you can provide a written letter from Stassia’s parents, proof of plane tickets and regular updates on your… what is it called… insta snap?” Grandad said, “Then we will let you go to Europe,”  
“Firstly, it’s Instagram. Secondly, my Instagram has absolutely no photos of me or my friends. That’s a rule that my parents made me agree to when I first got a phone several years ago. And thirdly, what about the fact that I turn 18 on August 24th? Surely that means you can’t have me for the entire holidays, right? Legal adult and all that jazz,”   
“Miss Jackson does have a point Mr Brown. Her 18th birthday does mean that Mr Barton no longer has to act as her legal guardian and any visitation rights given to her grandparents would also be null and void,” Clint’s lawyer said, jumping on the chance.  
“Mr Servetti does raise a fair point,” My grandparents’ lawyer conceded, “I propose that unless Abigail provides a written letter from her friend’s parents, proof of purchase of aeroplane tickets and regular updates on a private Instagram account that only Noel and Annette have access to as well as an intinary that Abigail will follow each day she is in Europe, up until the 24th of August where Abigail can make her own travel plans for New York if she so wishes,”  
“I like it,” Brown said, “It is the perfect compromise between the two parties. I’ll draw up the paperwork and Noel, Annette and Mr Barton can come back and sign it. I also propose that Abigail has up until two weeks before the end of the school year to alert Noel and Annette to her travel plans,” Knowing that this was going to be the best we could get, Clint and Servetti agreed to the plan. Everyone shook hands and left Brown’s office. As soon as my grandparents left the building I was on my phone calling Stassia.  
“What’s up Abigail?” Stassia asked, “I’m missing an important class to take this call,”  
“Your parents would be cool letting us go to Europe, wouldn’t they?” I asked.  
“What are you planning?”  
“Essentially, I either spend my summer holidays until my 18th in Dallas or I spend it in Europe with you,” I said, “I may have fabricated the later to get out of the former,”  
“You sneaky, devious person,” Stassia laughed, “I’ll see what I can do. By what time do you need the cover?”  
“Two weeks before the end of the school year,” I said, “Thanks so much,”  
“No problem Abs. I’ve got to go. See you tomorrow,”  
“See ya,” I hung up the phone and smiled at Clint. He just laughed and shook his head.  
“Thanks, Servetti for your help,” Clint said.  
“No problem Clint. Just jumping on Abigail’s now true story,” Servetti said, “Brilliant loophole,”  
“Thanks Mr Servetti,” I said.  
“I’ll see you when Brown has the paperwork drawn up Clint,” Servetti said, hailing a taxi.

“Tonight, Hayden Hamilton sits down with a local teenager and discuss what the next generation wants from their lawmakers,” The pre-recorded voice over announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, Mayoral candidate Hamilton and Abigail Jackson,” The stage lights turned up and I smiled at the camera pointed at me.   
“Hello Abigail,” Hamilton said, “It is lovely to see you again,”  
“Likewise, Mr Hamilton,” I said, “Thank you for having me,”  
“No problem,” Hamilton smiled, “Let’s talk about what’s happened recently in your life with the loss of your parents, and your brother. You lost them in the apartment collapse a few weeks ago, didn’t you?”  
“Yeah, I did,” I nodded. Even though I knew Hamilton was going to talk about the apartment collapse, it was still hard.   
“How are you feeling? About your whole experience,”  
“It still hurts. Not as bad as it has been though,”  
“That’s good to hear,” Hamilton said, “Now you’ve lived in New York your whole life, tell me what you as someone who has grown up here feels about Superheroes,” Like with asking about my family and the apartment collapse, I knew Hamilton was going to ask about superheroes as one of his many policies were to create tougher regulations for superheroes due to the large number living and working within the city. Clint and I had talked about it while going through various hashtags on twitter. Together we came up with a story for me to tell.  
“I was a kid when the Battle of New York happened. We were actually visiting the park so we weren’t directly affected by the battle expect for a few stray aliens who came across us. Hawkeye actually saved my life that day. So I guess anything he does doesn’t bother me as much as say Captain America does. Have you seen the videos he did talking about health and detention he did? Absolute bane of my life. And then there’s the day at the beginning of June when you’re sitting in class cursing the Avengers because you had to take three days off due to your school being a little bit beaten by Iron Man flying through the cafeteria,” I said, “I get why superheroes do what they do, sometimes its just too… I don’t know… dangerous I guess to be an average civilian. That being said, and I think you’ll find that most New Yorkers agree with me, Spider Man is just doing his best and I support him. And a lot of the younger heroes are in the same boat as him, so I guess by putting my support behind Spider Man, I’m putting my support behind his friends,”  
“Even Ligero? The mutant that lost control of her powers recently,”  
“If you watch the clip from that particular incident Mr Hamilton, you’ll see that it’s a three on three battle; Slingshot, Fe and Ligero veruses three bank robbers. Slingshot and Fe have been doing the hero gig for years now, but Ligero has only recently been on the scene. You would expect that she’s inexperienced and therefore would likely have more trouble bringing down her respective bad guy. Also there is video footage that places all three heroes in the battle against… Mole Man, was it?... about ten minutes before the robbery. It makes sense that Ligero, and Slinghot and Fe, would be exhausted. If anything I support Ligero more for giving it her all when it’s clear she is working with other heroes who have ten times more experience that her,”

The rest of the interview went on. I made comments on gun reform, LGBTQ+ matters and racism. When the interview was over and the cameras turned off, Hamilton thanked me for my time and that I had given him a lot to think about if he did become mayor. Clint was waiting for me in the wings.  
“You did good,” He said, “How are you feeling?”  
“Alright. I probably have adrenaline pumping through my veins right now. I was so nervous,”  
“Let’s get some pizza and a drink or two,”  
“Sounds like a great way to end my week from hell,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been two months since I've updated this story. And one month since I actually worked on it. Whoops. But who can blame me? I was stressing about getting excellence credits in my internals so I get the excellence endorsement before exams. Which I didn't get... and here I am, procrastinating doing study for my geography exam which is in less than two hours. Hope you enjoyed the update. Please comment with any feedback or comments you want to make :)

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment and a kudos. I appreciate any and all feedback.


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